Pianissimo
by Itonami
Summary: [Itachi x Sakura] In a battle of deceit and control, Sakura comes on top the first time, but Itachi will not be played as the fool the next time around. Rated for possible upcoming mature themes.
1. Act I

**Beginning notes:** My first Itachi x Sakura pairing fanfiction with just a smidge of one-sided Kakashi x Sakura. Let's see how this goes. Oh boy…

Enjoy!

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Pianissimo—Act I

_Scene I: Prey and Predator

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_

Cold, calculating eyes watched the definition of grace from under the large brimmed straw hat, its owner shrouded in an ominous black cloak. He followed the fluid motion of every step, of every swish of the geisha's kimono as she lured the enchanted audience into her trap of seduction.

The drums pounded in a forte, filling the room with a fast rhythmic thunder while the geisha spun with passion, creating a breathless illusion of red and gold. The crowd drew their breath in awe.

This geisha of his interest was clothed sensually in a fiery vermillion kimono where leaves of gold and pink were embroidered at the sleeves and the hem, and they seemed to flicker good-naturedly in the candlelight. Her long, alluring rosette locks hung from a fancy style at the back of her head, and many ornaments jingling softly with her nimble steps. Her flirtatious jade eyes that glinted like priceless emeralds caught his orbs of red. He was able to confirm his rising suspicions.

Only an experienced shinobi would be able to catch the practiced flick of her wrists that were able to throw weapons at blinding velocities in battle as she twirled and played with the fan and the movements of her body that unconsciously merged the poise of dance and the deadly art of a kunoichi.

The air hissed with each dip of the elegant red fan. Anything in her grasp could serve as a handy weapon.

Only a man with keen ears could hear the enticingly fast breaths that came from her as she danced, her chest rising and falling rapidly for the need for oxygen.

And, only a criminal like himself knew she was looking for him.

The pounding of the drums grew louder and louder until the entire fervent dance ended with the last enormous pound of the bass drum and beautiful geisha falling to one knee under the elaborate dress, the fan held above her in a graceful stretch of her arm.

The audience sat dead silent, reminding him of the sound of the forest after battle, and then burst into enormous applause with cat-calls and whistling all directed at the young woman who now got up to bow graciously.

Jade clashed cruelly with rubies.

He inclined his head forward as if bowing in respect as he tipped the straw hat further over his head. His ebony hair spilled over his shoulder and when he came back up from his slow bow, the light revealed the strikingly handsome face of Uchiha Itachi.

The geisha disguised kunoichi bowed again to conceal her mouth forming words. "Target has been sighted twenty yards from the stage. It's wearing a black cloak and a straw hat. It is now headed toward the exit." She whispered quickly and then stood to face the audience once more.

A head full of unruly gray hair started to weave through the crowd towards the exit. "Sakura, get changed and head out. You know what to do."

"Hai."

Sakura flitted off the stage to complete her act and as soon as she was out of sight, she hurriedly, impatiently pulled loose the floorboard where she hid her weapon pouch and several scrolls.

"Excellent performance, kunoichi."

Before she could turn around, someone was already behind her, daring her to move another inch. The cool tip of a kunai tickled her neck, the presence of death leering at her menacingly as silence settled around the prey and the predator. They could not hear the crowd outside chanting loudly.

"I'm afraid the Copy Ninja isn't yet here to save you." He breathed beside her ear, his voice containing no emotion.

"Obviously," Sakura bit out, cursing herself for not noticing his chakra beforehand.

"I believe you have something I want." He said, his voice so quiet even when he was right behind her. The calmness of his rich alto sent shivers down her spine, distracting her from the wave of mental thoughts that came to her head.

"What do I have, Uchiha Itachi?" Sakura tried to add some venom in her tone, but could not sustain any.

"The Jinchuuriki."

A mocking laugh resounded from her throat at his calm declaration. "Naruto? He's not here."

"Then he will come for you."

Just as she was about to reply, the curtain shielding their encounter ripped open, exposing the same prey and the predator to the expectant crowd.

Sakura took the chance of his rare surprise to spin out gracefully from him and his deadly kunai, a firm look in her eyes that told him to play along. She took up an elegant umbrella that was propped against the wall and she flung it open spectacularly, revealing a matching red to her kimono.

The beat of the drums began softly at a pianissimo, giving into the peculiarly peaceful scene that had been set up spontaneously. Sakura slowly made her way to the man who stood still, his figure draped in the black cloak and his rather feminine beauty shocking the audience into silence. She grazed by him, her hand dragging agonizingly slow across his chest and Itachi soullessly followed the geisha with his vibrant crimson eyes, allowing Sakura to play her game of pretend.

The flirtatious woman tapped the umbrella on her shoulders with a pout, making the spectators laugh quietly. Sakura suddenly felt his hot hand seize her by the arm, causing her to drop the umbrella in surprise, and she was spun forcefully with her back against his chest. Her breath quickened with something other than the need for oxygen as his hand smoothed over the silk of her clothes. Automatically, the rosette geisha leaned her head, her eyelids fluttering shut, on Itachi's firm shoulder as his hands tantalizingly made their way down to her left thigh.

"Let's play, kunoichi." He whispered into her ear.

Itachi slowly spun from her, his cloak flaring, his form almost as graceful as the geisha herself. Struggling to regain her intoxicated senses, Sakura swept up her fallen prop once more and twirled it at the handle as she did an unhurried, rhythmic dance solo, drawing a pair of Sharingan eyes to her slender figure.

Her heart sped up at the heat of his eyes as she came to a gradual stop to her solo and vaguely wondered what was going to happen next. She did not have to wait very long.

Itachi bowed with gallantry, abruptly initiating the second phase of their dance. He beckoned her to continue, as he was unwilling to come to her. Sakura also gave a bow that led effortlessly into her approach towards Itachi, who extended his hand to her. Without thinking twice, she took it and found herself in his embrace again, this time while facing him. An absent thought passed through her head as she stared into the eyes of the man who had mercilessly killed hundreds, the guilty and the innocent.

The kunoichi felt his hand slide under the flap of her dress and down her thigh, his touch awakening tingling nerves she never knew existed. She felt him slip out a shuriken from the small weapon pouch that had been strapped around her left leg, and any trace of his touch vanished instantly. Sakura felt him finger her pink locks and the pins that held her hair. He escaped from her by stepping sideways three times.

Sakura was left feeling cold once more and her body moved on its own, giving the viewers a poignant dance again as the drums and music quickened. She did not know what was going on. She did not like the feeling that she got when he was so close to her.

However, this phase of their exchange of body language was different than the rest. Itachi brushed across the floor to Sakura, and he carefully plucked the poison-covered hairpin from her hair. It tumbled down her back with nothing to bind it, a picture of delicacy that he had not the enjoyment of seeing in years. With a discrete flick of his wrist, the pin flew to a member of the audience, piercing his heart and causing a quick, silent death.

"You've had numerous opportunities to try to kill me, kunoichi. You've missed all of them." Itachi bent to whisper into her ear again.

"Not all." Sakura whispered back breathlessly.

With the agility that only a ninja could possess, she slipped out a small dagger from the sash that wound around her waist, and she attempted to stab his neck. The Uchiha stopped it with his own hand, subduing the sharp, dangerous blade while it cut into his palm. Blood dribbled down his hand as the crowd gasped at the dramatic sight. Wrenching it from her grasp, he threw it behind him and its tip buried deeply in a wooden post.

Sakura was met with a bruising kiss on her cherry lips as he held tight to both of her wrists; her struggle was futile and useless in his strong grip. Instead, she melted into his body, falling desperately against him and their kiss softened considerably into a chaste meeting of two pairs of lips.

"The Jinchuuriki, my kunoichi." He said calmly.

Her mind began to haze and go oddly unfocused when she stared into the eyes of enigmatic red where black swirled to connect the outer ring to his pupils.

_I will break you.

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_

_Scene II: Revelation

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_

Every one of her senses burned with a queer feeling of cold fire, her body feeling isolated from the mind as she fell back into a calm abyss. Sakura could not force herself to wake up nor figure out what was happening. It was as if someone had put a dampener on her senses, and stopped her from doing what all human beings did: think.

A film of different memories sped past her eyes, and she was entranced by the sheer vividness of each one. She felt like she was watching several short movies all in seconds. The images were all rushed, hardly enough time to even glance at them, but slowly, they came to a stop.

Sakura watched her own self speaking in hushed tones with a golden-haired man who proved to be her greatest friend in times of need, Uzumaki Naruto. He looked grave and solemn as he spoke to her and she was wildly shaking her head in worry, her pale face drained of any further color in her fright. But as even she as she looked on, her brain could not make sense of anything, only that it was a memory. With uncomprehending eyes, she stared at the scene in silence, nothing making a note of the way Sakura clapped her hands to her mouth in surprise and Naruto reaching out to grip by the shoulder to quiet her.

Little by little, the kunoichi of Konoha started to make sense of her current surroundings. What she was lying on was rather uncomfortable but warm enough, and the slightest bit of noise seemed to echo a bit as they reached her ears. Despite the warmth of whatever she was lying upon, the foreign air around her was dreadfully cold and it made her shiver in anticipation.

"Naruto!" She bolted upright, her eyes wide in apprehension and fear.

"Sakura, are you alright?" His voice registered into her mind but the worry and surprise in it distorted it.

Hatake Kakashi, a faithful shinobi and Sakura's humble sensei with much experience in the field, knelt beside her, his one visible eye displaying shock. His jounin vest matched hers, but his gray hair rightly designated their age difference.

"Sensei…" Sakura muttered as she rubbed an aching head.

"That was dangerous, Sakura, being alone like that. You should have called for help." He reprimanded, his surprise replaced by his anger.

"I'm sorry, I just got carried away. He had a kunai to my throat." She whispered absently, trying to assuage the onslaught of a raging migraine.

Kakashi's anger quickly deflated when he looked at her tired faced etched with insomnia and he put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Get some rest. We will head straight to Konoha at dawn."

"What time is it now?"

"Midnight. I'll keep watch. Just sleep as much as you can." He said, tenderly pushing her back down on her worn sleeping bag.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." She murmured sleepily while rubbing her eyes. "By the way, are you injured anywhere?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Minor injuries. Nothing to worry about."

Sakura turned onto her side and sighed. "Naruto is safe, right?"

Her sensei gazed at her and his mask lifted slightly in a smile of confidence. "You know he is, Sakura."

"I can't help but ask…" She trailed off, a feeling of doubt overcoming her.

A suspicious feeling aroused the Copy Ninja. "Did something happen, Sakura? Did Itachi say something to you?"

She shook her head. "It's nothing. Just seeing the Akatsuki makes me think of Naruto, and seeing Naruto makes me think of the Akatsuki."

Kakashi patted her head. "He can take care of himself. Besides, he doesn't want you to worry about him."

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, you're sure Naruto's okay?"

He looked at his former pupil. Indeed, Haruno Sakura had come a long way from the twelve-year-old genin, both in skill and figure. She was now a successful young woman, beautiful and strong, whom he couldn't help but admire. Sakura had saved his life on numerous occasions with her training with Tsunade while he protected her as well as he could, being her teacher and mentor. The thought of Itachi that close to her was quite unnerving. It struck a chord of jealousy in his heart and it rang as a painful melody; he knew that he loved her and that it was forbidden, but not because of the physical age difference, but because of his scarred life that he didn't dare to share with her.

Kakashi shook away his thoughts, and instead gave her a bigger smile.

"Yes, I'm sure."

Sakura smiled sleepily. "You're the best, Kakashi-sensei." Her eyes closed shut soon and he sat beside her, watching her slumber in peace and mentally wondering what he had done to deserve such torture.

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_Scene III: Poison

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_

Itachi's hand was useless by the time he had gotten two hundred yards from where the geisha had preformed. He could feel the fiery sensation of the poison creep upward towards his shoulder, and he glanced at the deficient limb with slight concern. The kunoichi that he had the utmost pleasure of meeting had smoothed on a lethal toxin on the fine blade of the dagger that had been hidden in the folds of her sash. Not until his hand began to twitch uncontrollably and painfully, was he aware of this fact; the hand that had been cut was badly inflamed and infected so that the lesion excreted discolored pus, and hissed when it made contacted with the fresh night air. The poison acted swiftly.

The infamous Uchiha criminal carried the lifeless appendage that hung loosely by his side as he leapt on the high branches of the trees, but he could not help but notice whenever the wind found the opportunity to brush its touch across the wound.

He came to a clearing, but he stood on a branch to sense for any foreign chakra. Seeing none but sensing a familiar one, he leapt down to find a large man sitting while leaning his back on a tree, an enormous sword latent beside him. Itachi also seated himself, not too far away from his companion, and he unzipped his black cloak in order to slip out his injured hand. It was dark and he could not see much, but the sliver of moonlight befell upon him, casting a pale illumination on Itachi's face.

"I smell poison." The bulky man grunted, not bothering to get up to see if Itachi was injured.

"A minor problem, Kisame. Hand me the pack." Itachi replied.

He easily caught the small pack tossed to him, and he opened it to rummage through the various contents inside. Finding what he needed, Itachi pulled out a small circular container filled with ointment and quickly unscrewed the lid. Dipping two fingers inside, he then gently rubbed it on the wound, keeping his face emotionless and ignoring the huge amount of pain that shot through his system.

"What about the Jinchuuriki?"

There was a pause while the Uchiha slit a small opening on his upper arm in order to bleed out the toxin; it hadn't reached his shoulder yet which was a sign that his heart was still unaffected.

"He will come. I have sent a messenger to him." Itachi said softly.

"So all we gotta do is wait? Again?" Kisame growled irritably.

Itachi stopped the flow of blood by wrapping it tightly with clean bandages. "No, we will have to track her."

"Her? A kunoichi?" He asked gruffly, his voice coarse and skeptical. "You sure you know what you're doing?"

"I am not used to having my actions questioned, Kisame." The smaller man said quietly, his tone evident of warning.

Kisame waved his hand nonchalantly. "Ne'ermind." He muttered.

"Come, the poison in my arm has stopped flowing. Our little messenger and the Copy Ninja should be heading west towards Konoha." Itachi stood to his full height and waited for his partner to do the same.

Leisurely, Kisame got to his feet, towering over Itachi by an entire head. The moonlight revealed his ugly, shark-like features, tinting his strange bluish gray skin even grayer. He picked up his sword and strapped it routinely on his back.

"So, this, kunoichi…was she anything worth killing?"

The impassive expression on Itachi's face did not change at Kisame's question. "We can't kill her yet. Be patient."

"I got some food while you were away."

Itachi ignored him and swept away. "It's best that we arrive at Konoha before they do."

The pair of cloaked shinobi took to the tree branches once more. Itachi kept his mind off of the poisoned arm and focused on the task at hand. Too many years had passed without the successful capture of the Kyuubi. This time, the Akatsuki would not tolerate any further failure. _He _would not tolerate failure.

"What's after we're at Konoha?"

Itachi had thought ahead and proceeded to answer the other Akatsuki. "Once she delivers the message, we will kill her. The Jinchuuriki will have no choice but to come after us."

The shark-like man bared his teeth in a horrible smile at Itachi's plan. "Sounds good to me."

"We will have to be weary of Kakashi. He is too clever for his own good." Itachi breathed, but loud enough for the other to hear.

"We can take him. If he gets in the way, we'll just kill him too."

"Hn." The Uchiha mused.

There was a short silence as they traveled before Kisame sniffed the air again. "That arm of yours…the smell of the poison's gotten worse."

"Don't mind it." Itachi cut off shortly. "Come quickly."

By dawn, the two Akatsuki members had sighted the gates of Konoha and decided to dwell on the outskirts of the forest that surrounded the village.

_Come, my kunoichi. You have promised me the Jinchuuriki._

_

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_

**Ending notes:** The whole geisha scene was inspired by the book _Memoirs of a Geisha_ and the impending movie version. If you're interested in Japanese culture, I highly recommend this book and watch the movie too! I hope to see it as soon as it comes out!

I hope you don't mind the one-sided Kakashi x Sakura. I thought that I should put more of Kakashi in my stories.

I have begun an Itachi fetish due to a crazy good story by Leafygirl. Now, I have everything of Itachi: 50+ images saved on my computer, a desktop of Itachi's beauty, two completed fanarts with 5 more uncompleted sketches…

…um…I love Itachi? XD


	2. Act II

**Beginning notes: **I keep messing with the summary because I keep changing the main idea of my story. I haven't completely settled on an idea yet, so bear with me… I'd like to write some little notes to some of my lovely reviewers:

**Signalbox**- Thank you very for pointing that out. I've forgotten how Kisame really acts. --;; Maybe I should go watch the anime some more and read and manga more closely… As for Itachi, is it alright if I continue with how I am with him? He will eventually refer to her as Sakura…eventually… I appreciate your comments!

**FormerAurora-** Offended? Hardly. I'm so glad you reviewed! And to comment on your comment, I have no idea. That thought actually never even occurred to me as I was writing. Hehe, creative license? XD

**Yuugi-chan-** Grammar and mechanism is always a point that I will never be able to perfect. Thank you very much for what you said. I'll keep all of it in mind.

Also thank you to the rest of you for enjoying the first chapter! Onto the second!

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Pianissimo—Act II

_Scene I: A Vow

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_

As Uchiha Itachi waited from dawn to late morning, the pain in his arm began to grow worse; the medication and the bleeding did not proceed to neutralize the toxin. His arm shook unpleasantly and he could not lift it nor could he move his fingers. The poison was obviously something that the clever kunoichi made by herself, and she had led him perfectly into her trap during their dance. Perfectly.

He could still see her dazed facial expression and the way she held his eyes as if he was some deity from the heavens. He could still feel her hands on his chest and the softness of her lips against his that made him enjoy a side of human passion that he had not bothered to explore. All of this was her act of deception and it was a fantastically convincing one worthy of applause and scorn.

His face was set in an angry frown—a true emotion that was most often seen on his face—when he came to this conclusion. Kisame glanced at his companion while noticing the disturbed chakra waves that rolled freely from his body.

"We should just kill her now." The shark man commented.

The other shinobi forced back a dark sneer. "Don't worry. She will die. I will kill her myself."

Itachi was not one to crave blood and killing. The only purpose in his life was to know what his limit was, to have the superior knowledge of when he could go no further. However, this pink-haired kunoichi had played him like a book, flawlessly manipulating him while allowing him to think that it was she who was being controlled. He despised feeling like a fool, and the consequences of his arrogance and ignorance was now leading to a permanent disablement of his arm. He had never felt this angry in years.

Kisame almost shivered in delight at Itachi's words, knowing that Sakura was going to suffer a horrible, merciless death. He licked his jagged teeth in eager anticipation.

It was only an hour later when they spotted Kakashi and Sakura trudging towards the gates. The pair of Akatsuki members watched in silence as they disappeared behind the great doors which had opened for their entrance. They caught each other's eyes and swiftly made their move.

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_Scene II: A Warning

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_

Sakura and Kakashi immediately headed to Tsunade who was already awaiting their report in her office. Once behind secure doors, Sakura explained the mission.

"…and the poison will have rendered his arm useless for now. In period of five days, it will have spread throughout his entire system."

The Godaime nodded. "You did well. The poison is incurable and will prove to be fatal. After he is dead, the hunter-nins will look for his body. We wouldn't want the secret of the Sharingan out in the open." She smiled at the pair of weary shinobi. "You may go and get some rest."

Hastily, Sakura quickly stood from her chair as Kakashi disappeared in a pillar of smoke, surprising both herself and the Hokage. "Shishou, I actually wanted to know if I could visit Naruto."

Golden eyebrows partially glimmered upwards in mild shock at her sudden request, but narrowed downward as if trying to see a hidden motive behind her student's green eyes. "This wouldn't have anything to do with the mission, would it, dear Sakura?"

Heat added a light pink shade on her cheeks. "I just miss him, that's all."

Tsunade sighed and closed her eyes. "I suppose it has been awhile since you've seen him. It is true that Naruto has been restless and ill-tempered. He's not the type to stay hidden."

"I know." A meaningful smile graced Sakura's petite face.

Uzumaki Naruto had raged for a full hour while challenging the Godaime's idea of him staying low and under the radar. His robust personality was certainly one that no one could suppress or contain; the child had been quite eccentric from the beginning. The Kyuubi sealed inside of him gave him a power which surpassed all imagination and Naruto's capture by the Akatsuki would prove to be costly for the Leaf. Tsunade had reasoned with him, firmly telling him that if he was to be the next Hokage, he should be able to sacrifice his pride for the safety of the entire village. That had worked like a charm.

"He's always up at night. You may go see him then."

"Thank you." Sakura said softly as she bowed humbly. "I'll be careful."

When she exited the warm office, she found Kakashi waiting outside for her patiently with his back against the wall and his arms crossed. The air encompassing him wasn't a very pleasing one.

"Come on, I'll walk you home." He said and turned to walk away without Sakura's opinion on the matter.

The kunoichi quickly caught up with her teacher while knowing in her mind what had made him offer her a walk back home. Hatake Kakashi still instilled some fear into her; even now, she still had unanswered questions about his life and his abilities. As a teacher, she respected him endearingly, as a man who kept every part of his life locked away inside, she kept her distance.

"You shouldn't keep a lady waiting for the gentleman to speak what's on his mind." She said quietly as they passed several shops.

The mask over his face did not lift at her menial attempt at humor. "Sakura, as your sensei, I advise you not to visit Naruto. At least not tonight." He stated frankly without turning to look at her. "You may be leading the Akatsuki to where he is hiding."

Sakura opened her mouth in disbelief. "How do you—"

"I don't know for sure, Sakura," The Copy Ninja cut in. "but I have a bad feeling about you going there tonight. Couldn't you wait another day?"

She had to bite her lip from saying anything further. She could not give away the reason why she was going to visit Naruto in the first place. Sakura opted for a forced smile. "You're getting more paranoid with age, Kakashi-sensei."

"Sakura—"

The young woman stopped him with a shake of her head. "It'll be fine. I'll be careful."

Kakashi sighed and slouched forward in his gait as usual and tried to look assured. "I'll trust you on this, Sakura."

Sakura had to admit that she was glad her sensei had not pressed the issue any further. She could have let something slip in an attempt to cover up for her real intentions.

Kakashi dropped her off at the door of her apartment before vanishing in a cloud of smoke for the second time that day. She entered her apartment tiredly, a part of her glad that the mission had been completed. If she had stayed a moment longer with Itachi, something definitely would have gone awry.

It had been bad enough dancing with him for the mere sight of him had struck something hollow in Sakura's heart, a small portion where a long-past affection had inhabited. The dancing had been undeniably unpredicted, even by her, and it was true that Kakashi could have been too late to save her had Itachi decided to end their dance with murder. But, it had worked out well: Itachi was poisoned fatally and the location of Naruto's whereabouts was still tightly undisclosed.

She thought back to what her teacher had warned her about going to visit Naruto. Anything that made Kakashi uncomfortable was something to be heeded, but Sakura justified defying her sensei by a reason only known to her. She would speak with her best friend first before going to Tsunade. Alerting Naruto first was for a precautionary basis, just in case Itachi was plotting to attack tonight, and he would be able to know what to expect.

"This is all rubbish." She mumbled to no one in particular while sprawled awkwardly on the couch.

Dealing with Itachi firsthand was something that Sakura never wanted to do ever again, and it wasn't just the way he stared at her or the way he touched her. It also wasn't the way Itachi's body seemed to mold perfectly with her own and it wasn't just how they seemed to connect through their sensual language. No, it was something much deeper than that, and she didn't intend to find out what that was.

"Water, I just need some water." The pink-haired woman sighed as she clambered ungracefully from the couch, a sudden rush of blood to her head impairing her vision just for a brief moment.

The cool liquid slid down her throat soothingly and she let out a soft stream of air after two gulps. Green eyes saw their distorted reflection in the glass cup, reminding Sakura of broken jade stones. She rubbed her eyes and set the glass down on the table, the water reminding her that she needed a bath.

Sakura turned the faucet to the bathtub and went around collecting a few dry towels, fresh clothes, and her hairbrush. She took a quick sip of water from the glass again, hesitating as she saw her broken reflection, before going to check the water gathering in the tub. She undid her jounin vest and set the heavy garment on a chair as she went on to take off the rest of her clothes. Tossing them carelessly aside, she slipped into the water, sighing with contentment while doing so, and simply sat in the bath to empty her troubled mind.

* * *

_Scene III: Coming of Lust

* * *

_

Itachi's Sharingan eyes narrowed considerably at her naked body. Her figure was willowy and slender, her skin flawless and creamy, and her long rosy hair covered her exposed breasts from his line of sight. Something in his chest constricted.

Kisame seemed unaffected and only grinned in his horrible way. "You can tell she's still a virgin."

There was only silence from his companion who had replaced his changed countenance with his usual mask of indifference. But this time, his mind was whirling with different plans.

"Kisame, I'm afraid killing her will have to wait." The Uchiha said calmly while Kisame snapped his head to look at him. "My arm will die with her if we kill her prematurely. She must know an antidote to the poison."

"What's the threat?"

"Threat?" Itachi asked, before letting a miniscule smile grace his face. "You'll see, Kisame."

They watched until she got out of the bath clad in only a towel and they retreated further away so that she wouldn't detect their presence. As night fell upon them, it was exceedingly harder to see her movements. At last, late into the night, Sakura dressed in dark clothes and strapped one weapon holster around her waist and the other around her thigh. She leapt out of her window and sped away into the dark, leaving her apartment vulnerable to a vicious shark and a sly weasel.

The mismatched pair of ninja slipped inside and Kisame looked around the room. "Clean, she doesn't like disorder." He grunted. "It seems like forever since I've been in an actual room."

Itachi agreed with a nod of his fair head. He stood near the small bathroom and the scent of her fragrant soap became the only thing he could smell while a sadistic thought came to his mind.

_We shall see how well she will play her part.

* * *

_

_Scene IV: Happenings

* * *

_

Sakura traveled among the trees for two hours already and she knew she was getting close. She kept her senses alert and hypersensitive, Kakashi's warning giving her an uneasy feeling, but she knew that she wasn't being followed as of yet. The leaves brushed past her face and rustled as she sped past them.

In the dark, she spotted the familiar big oak tree and started west for another mile when she reached it. Eventually, the forest of trees thinned when she came to a small, concealed meadow. A little oriental house stood in a corner, shaded by the canopy of treetops above it, and she approached with extreme caution as she also kept an eye for the traps that she helped set up. The petite figure slipped past an explosive on the second step of the house.

Before she could even knock, the door was thrown open and a tall form of a man lunged at her with a kunai in hand. Gold sparkled in the moonlight.

"Naruto, it's me!" Sakura shouted as she felt herself being thrown backwards by his weight. She had to shield her eyes from the light that spilled from a lamp.

"Sakura-chan! Naruto-kun, it's Sakura-chan!" An alarmed, timid voice met her ears.

The man who had attacked her scrambled off of her with an apologetic look. "Gomen, Sakura-chan, I could only see a shadow coming towards the house. I didn't think it'd be you visiting."

Sakura beheld the sight of Uzumaki Naruto and Hinata with warm, laughing eyes. The man wore a simple orange shirt with a black pair of pants. His blue eyes had not changed from the last time she remembered them. Automatically, tears filled her eyes and it was her turn to launch herself into his reassuring arms while bawling like she hadn't in years.

Naruto chuckled and looked sheepishly at his wife. "She's always like this."

Hinata understood with a smile.

When the pink-haired kunoichi composed herself, she had the pleasure of reacquainting with the couple once more. It had been a full half a year since Sakura's last visit to the Uzumaki residence, and she had missed her friends terribly. The Itachi mission had shaken her faith in Naruto's safety.

"So, what brings you to our neck of the woods?" Naruto asked cheerfully as Hinata set up tea for their guest.

Sakura did not answer his question right away and he gave her some time to think of something to say. She raised her eyes to be level with his pools of cobalt before clearing her throat. "Naruto, yesterday, I came back from a mission."

He nodded. "Obaa-chan told me."

"Uchiha Itachi wants you to know that he's after you." She said in one breath. "He will find out where you are. You guys should seek to shelter somewhere else; it's not safe here anymore."

There was a terse silence between them while Hinata and Naruto communicated through their eyes. Sakura anxiously awaited their decision.

The golden-haired man smiled sadly at his friend as he put a hand on his wife's knee. "Sakura, we're tired of running."

The kunoichi looked up sharply, her tongue ready with rebuking words at his stubbornness. Naruto held up a hand to stop her. "No, we're really done with running like frightened rabbits. I feel foolish and so does Hinata. How many times have we moved in the middle of the night because of a false alarm? Too many, Sakura, and frankly, we're tired of it."

"But, Naruto, this isn't a false—"

He shook his head vigorously. "It doesn't matter. False or not, we're staying."

She opened her mouth to speak again to tell her best friend of the impending danger that was getting ready to spring its trap. She thought better of it and looked defeated. Sighing, Sakura daintily picked up her cup to sip the warm brew.

"You aren't mad, are you, Sakura-chan?"

The young woman smiled gently behind the cup, and she knew Naruto could see it. "It's you're call. Truthfully, I'd be tired of running away. Just promise me you'll be careful at all times."

Hinata was glad that Naruto had such a caring friend who had risked life and limb to warn them of Itachi's coming. "We promise, Sakura-chan."

"Yeah, and besides," he said as he reached over to grab Hinata's hand, "we've got the Byakugan on our side, remember?"

The three of them laughed together, knowing that it would be another long time before they could see each other again. Naruto hated being apart from the people he had come to care so much about, and he was adamant about protecting them the best he could. No more hiding. Hinata had already given up two years of her life in solitude with him, abandoning her duty has heiress to the Hyuuga clan, and he was so tired to see her kept away from family.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Sakura asked, waving a hand in front of his face in an attempt to snap him awake from his trance. The expression in his eyes was beginning to scare her; they burned with anger and passion that she had seen on few occasions.

The future Hokage blinked once before focusing on the woman who knelt comfortably before him. "It's getting late. You should get going."

With a short embrace for each of them, Sakura left once more, snaking her way past the numerous booby traps. Once she was past all of them, the kunoichi jumped from tree to tree hurriedly towards her apartment again with the need to warn Naruto freshly flushed from her system.

When Sakura entered through her window, she automatically reached for the small lamp on a table. She undid the weapon pouches and set them down while making her way to the small kitchen in order to get a drink of water.

The sharp, observant shinobi froze in her tracks.

The glass cup from before was not where she had placed it previously. She had set it down on the kitchen table, but now it rested on the counter next to the sink. Someone had entered her apartment. Either they left already or they were still here.

Sakura darted to where she had left her weapons to find both pouches missing. Her heart hammered in her chest as she realized that she had not been alone from the beginning. The hairs at the back of her neck rose at the terror and chills spread over her entire body, creating goose bumps on her forearms and legs.

"You have delivered my message like I've asked, kunoichi?" The same alto voice said from behind.

She whirled around to become face to face with the man who she had been dreading to ever meet again. When she made the slightest move to bolt for the door, Sakura found herself pinned to the wall painfully, the wall's smooth hardness against her back and the warm softness of a human body against her chest.

"Why have you followed me here?" She voiced hoarsely.

A dry, mirthless chuckle ticked her earlobe. "You may have played me the fool once before, but I don't fall for the same trick twice."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She said, trying to hide behind a mask of unawareness.

"Then let us talk about what you know. The poison on the blade that I had the misfortune of touching, you will create an antidote for it." He whispered into her ear.

Sakura's breathing hitched. "What if I refuse? Will you kill me?"

"Do you so wish to die, kunoichi?" Another chuckle. "Then I'll let you live and let you suffer through torture before I do kill you."

Her soft laughter matched his in its lack of humor. "You have five days to live, Itachi. Go screw yourself."

His hand slyly snaked its way up to her throat and tightened around it. Sakura let out a choking gasp. His red eyes were angry now, but his face betrayed nothing. In fact, it looked quite calm. "I was actually thinking of someone else to…screw." Itachi breathed quietly while his thumb grazed her chin.

She felt her face flush at his implication. "Go to hell."

"Not yet. Not until you heal my arm."

Her face contorted in a malicious sneer. "The great Uchiha Itachi asking for my help?"

The Uchiha ignored her jab at his pride. "The Jinchuuriki's wife will die tonight if you do not agree."

"You're bluffing. You don't know where they are." She said bravely while barely being able to keep her voice from shaking.

The Sharingan began to spin madly. "A piece of information that will be simple to gain."

Sakura's eyes became wide and Itachi could see the panic in them. "No, wait." She managed out in a small whisper.

"The antidote."

She shut her eyes as if she was trying to convince herself that this was not really happening. "There is no antidote. The poison is mixed with my own chakra. I will have to reverse its process myself."

He suddenly let her go and Sakura slid down the wall in defeat. Itachi gazed down at her flowing pink hair and he crouched to be at eyelevel with her. Jaded eyes were empty and soulless. "I will return here tomorrow night."

The Uchiha only saw her nod absently before standing. He swept away, the hem of his robe brushing her cheek. Sakura reached out to grab it, her eyes still unfocused, and Itachi turned around to look back.

"Sasuke-kun will hate me forever now that I'm helping you." She said low voice.

"Sasuke has always hated everyone. It is nothing personal. I trained him to be that way." He said softly as if trying to lift her spirits. It did little.

"You will die in five days."

Itachi's lips were set in a grim line. "Not anymore."

"Not anymore…" She echoed vaguely. "Because of me…"

He disappeared, leaving behind nothing to indicate his former presence.

Sakura cried.

* * *

_Scene V: Foreshadow

* * *

_

Kisame remained to his spot beneath the tree when he saw Itachi's form flit into view. "How'd it go?"

Itachi glanced in the direction of her apartment. "It will take longer than planned."

The shark-man grunted. "I'm not surprised."

The smaller man slipped out a kunai and went to the tree that Kisame was sitting under. He slashed a thin marking on the bark. "This is the first day."

"What do we do if she can't heal you?"

Itachi turned around at an impossible speed, his red eyes spotting movement in the distance, and the deadly kunai shot from his hands. A small squeak signified the end of a small rabbit. The weapon had pierced its side and blood stained its brown fur and the grass around it, the crimson clashing horribly with the sea of green.

"We kill all of them."

* * *

**Ending notes:** Most of you are probably confused. Don't worry, I am too. Keep an open mind for now; anything can happen.

I hate how Itachi seems out of character. There's too much liberty to be taken with someone like him. I'll need to go back and fix that.

Last scene will prove to be important. Watch out for that.

Reviews will be very much appreciated.


	3. Act III

**Beginning notes:** You don't need to yell at me. I know I'm late. This is my Please-Forgive-Itonami truce chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto.

* * *

Pianissimo—Act III

_Scene I: Suspicion

* * *

_

The dawn of morning did not provide any comfort or hope for the kunoichi who had fallen asleep against the wall, slumped over her knees pathetically. Her despair had continued through her dreams while rendering her mind useless against any struggle to awake from them, allowing her tormented mind to dwell in a mental hell that existed without question to her. Through the night, she had seen the gruesome images of Hinata lying in a pool of blood, her throat cut savagely like a pig in a slaughterhouse, and Naruto's empty corpse no longer possessed by the Kyuubi.

Haruno Sakura pried her eyes open only to shut them quickly when they touched the light from her window, her eyelids swollen and colored a nasty reddish hue. She forced her arms and legs to move as she attempted to stagger to her feet. It was difficult at first—her back felt like it had rusted over—when she tried, but she eventually reached the couch in relief.

Night was far away but Sakura couldn't help shivering involuntarily at the inevitable coming of the darkness…which would bring Uchiha Itachi with it. She felt dirty, unclean, when she thought back to the night before, when Itachi blackmailed her into helping him.

Her hands clenched into fists, as she mentally kicked herself again and again for her helplessness. She could never do anything but now she felt that she had sunk to an all-time low, helping a criminal regain his health after actually putting the poison there in the first place.

The rosette gasped and snapped her head to listen to a quiet knock on her door. Silently, she rubbed her eyes and stole to the bathroom to wash her tired face, pointedly ignoring the knock.

The knock came again, its easy rhythm and soft volume unchanged. "Sakura, I know you're in there. It's Kakashi." The muffled voice from the other side came through.

Sakura winced at the name but quickly went to the door and opened it, smiling widely as she met his worried eye. "Oh, I was just about to make coffee, Kakashi-sensei."

A disbelieving look crossed his face before concealing it behind a mask of friendliness. "Do you have some crackers to go with that?"

He heard her giggle childishly before her familiar teasing tone tickled his nerves. "No, but I can make toast."

The stormy gray of the Copy Ninja's eye searched her apartment carefully. Nothing seemed to be out of place; everything was neat and tidy as it was Sakura's habit of organization, but the queasy uneasiness began to slowly suffocate him. It felt like he had buttoned his shirt wrong but couldn't figure out which button was mismatched.

"Kakashi-sensei, you look pale. Are you alright?"

Her voice shook him out of his thoughts, but Kakashi did not look at her as if he was afraid to find the answer in the orbs of jade. "Nothing, I'm fine."

A small mug of dark liquid was placed before him and he could see the wavering reflection of his face, drawn and obviously concerned, but it dispersed when he picked it up to sip its contents.

"So, what makes you visit your old student at this time of the morning?" She asked as she settled in a chair in front of him while holding her own cup in her two hands. Sakura leaned forward allowing her long hair to cascade over her shoulders attractively, distracting the older man expertly.

Kakashi gazed at her youthful face for a long while, inspecting the redness around her eyes, the dullness of her eyes, and the fake smile that she hid behind. He was hurt that she felt the need to deceive him, to behave a certain way around him, but then he realized that none of it was really Sakura's fault.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright. Did you go see Naruto last night?" He asked swiftly changing the topic.

Sakura nodded. "He was fine, but he almost attacked me when he saw me approaching."

"I hope you told him that I send my best wishes."

She smiled that falsetto smile again. "A given, Kakashi-sensei."

The Copy Ninja's eye suddenly widened when he saw something that he had not managed to catch before. "Sakura," he breathed, "what are those marks around your neck?"

True to his word, when Sakura shifted her head and pulled her long locks from her shoulders out of habit, red blotches were revealed on her skin so that if all of them were seen together, they resembled a human hand. Quickly, the kunoichi let her hair fall back in place but it was too late; Kakashi had seen too much.

He stood from his seat, his dark eye clouded in anger and worry. "What happened? Were you attacked? Threatened?"

She backed away from him and stood defensively. "Nothing, when Naruto tried to attack me, he had his hands around my throat. It was an accident, sensei. Stop worrying." She tried to refrain from being cold.

Kakashi's hand flew to her throat unexpectedly and grasped it gently but firmly, ignoring the panicked, shocked expression on her face. His eye narrowed again in suspicion. "No, this handprint is smaller than mine. Naruto outgrew me years ago. You're lying, Sakura. _Don't_ lie to me."

"I am _not_ lying." Sakura hissed through gritted teeth.

He jerked his hand away as if he had touched something hot or contaminated, his eye displaying a look of disgust as he glared at his hand. Without another word, he left in ball of gray smoke.

Sakura let out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding as soon as he disappeared. She touched her neck and looked at the mirror to inspect the discolorations while cursing at herself for not noticing such an noticeable thing before. Indeed, the spots marred her creamy skin, the bruises themselves evident of Itachi's strength and power…and his ruthlessness.

The kunoichi sighed and began to heal away the bruises with her chakra with her hands, the famed hands that saved hundreds of lives over the course of her medical career. A full adult at the age of twenty-one, Sakura was a treasured member of Konoha as a valuable medic nin.

But now, she felt like a stupid, foolish girl for provoking Itachi and allowing him into her apartment. At the unheeded warning of her sensei, she had awoken new suspicions that could prove to be bothersome and unnecessary.

She hated lying to Kakashi.

Sakura sighed and rubbed the back of her head, unable to think clearly and still rather shocked at Kakashi's unprecedented anger. She had only seen her teacher this angry just once and it was a full nine years before, when they came across Zabuza and Haku.

"Naruto, this is why I need you here." The kunoichi muttered. "God, I hate being alone."

In order to clear away the troubling thoughts, she continued to walk and pace outside until darkness fell once more, the same blackness obscuring her heart as easily as silk. The beauty of the night was ironic compared to the hideousness of her dread. Sakura whispered the unspoken fear of Uchiha Itachi to the wind before walking slowly back to her apartment which would soon contain the very nature of poison.

* * *

_Scene II: Night

* * *

_

The apartment was quiet, unearthly so, and it gave off its own inexplicable scent of eeriness when she entered it softly. The kunoichi could not see much in the shadows that inhabited the corners and she could not detect any kind of chakra even as she heightened her awareness. Sakura shut the door behind her and heard it lock with a quiet click before creeping towards her bedroom. Opening the door, she ventured a little sigh of relief.

"Were you out somewhere, kunoichi?"

Sakura muffled a strangled cry of surprise as she whirled around with eyes as wide as a frightened deer, her gaze transfixed by the form that had been the cause of her terror. Her heart was beating loudly and rapidly like the rhythm of the drums that she had danced to not long ago.

Itachi stood dressed in his usual black cloak, patterned with red clouds, and his Sharingan seemed to glow in the dark a venomous red, instilling further fear into his prey. The feminine handsomeness of his face looked strangely haggard; the poison had apparent difficult side effects.

"Uchiha Itachi." She breathed his forbidden name, daring to venture a step further towards him.

The Uchiha held her gaze for a full second before carefully slipping out his injured arm. It smelled revoltingly of pus. "A clever poison, little kunoichi. Your chakra working against mine while rendering the nerves in my arms from responding by the actual poison."

She was actually astonished he had figured it out so quickly. Truly, this man was an unrivaled shinobi. Clearing her throat, Sakura pointed to her bed. "Sit."

Swiftly, Itachi was seated cross legged in the middle of the soft sheets while Sakura sighed and lighted two candles, her pupils dilating at the sudden but dim light. She tossed off her shirt and rummaged through her drawers in search of a clean one, while the bandages wrapped around her breasts and her upper torso were displayed to the preying eyes of the man sitting upon her bed.

Finding her shirt, she pulled it on and turned to face him, her eyes inanimate and distant as she sat down next to him with a shuddering breath. Sakura asked him to undo his cloak and properly show her the infected arm. She refrained from gagging at the horrendous sight and the foul smell.

The arm was a sickly green color, the skin breaking up painfully while blood oozed like the pus itself, and it seemed to be incapable of moving. The main lesion on his hand was caked with dead blood, still open and unhealed. Sakura frowned but did not the trouble to be careful. After all, all she had to do was heal him but healing always had a hurting phase.

The kunoichi carefully circulated a precise amount of chakra into her hand and let it hover over the wound first since it was the origin of the poison that had spread to his body. Even while she was working, the eyes of Uchiha Itachi kept a close watch on her actions. One false move with her chakra could result in her carotid artery sliced with the blade of the kunai he kept beside his hand. It would not be a good time to show the dangerous criminal that she had no idea how to reverse the poison's wrath. However, she could start by healing the wound first so that the infection wouldn't get any worse than it looked.

"When can you completely restore the arm?" His impassive voice spoke softly in the room, while nothing else shifted.

Sakura shook her head. "I don't know," She uncomfortably shifted her weight closer in order to prevent from sliding off the bed. Sakura could see the fine lines of each defined muscle through his mesh shirt and it was all she could do not to stare openly at such a sight. It had been awhile since she had been with a man besides her teacher and Naruto.

He gave no other reply by a small nod of his head. He tried not to show any signs that he was being mentally affected by the toxin, though he was exhausted from making the travel to her apartment and it seemed to take every bit of energy in order to keep his eyes open. Itachi inspected her with feigned attentiveness while she worked intently on healing his arm.

In a few hours, the gentle waves of her chakra dulled the pain to a degree where Itachi could ignore it and he became alert enough to care about the small bedroom he was sitting in.

It was simple; the only things furnishing it were the bed and a small dresser that was complete with drawers. He noticed that the only personal items that were put on exhibit were a wooden picture frame and a roughly worn doll that could have been a bear in its better days. The frame contained a smiling picture of what he assumed to be the former Team Kakashi: Sakura in between the two male teammates (who stood glaring at the other in a childish way) and the Copy Ninja complemented them with his lazily grinning presence behind them.

However, it was mainly the bear that drew the pair of Sharingan to it, one of its red button eyes missing and the other one hanging by a thin thread. It was an odd blue color, perhaps it had been dark blue, and its black nose was scratched. A puff of black hair stood up on the top of its rather pathetically wrinkled head, its unruly style reminding Itachi of someone who had been long dead. There were many mending jobs done upon the body, the mismatched patches giving it a homely aged look; it appeared as if Sakura had it forever.

The many hours seemed to tick by unhurriedly as the candle wax grew ever dimmer and Sakura grew wearier by the second, her eyes drooping tiredly and her chakra flow becoming unsteady. Shaking her head to knock some sense into herself, the young female sighed. "It would be useless if I continued like this. I've done what I can for one night." She said quietly as she got up to stand.

The dark Uchiha inspected the wound which had already closed and started to heal on its own. He swirled the cloak as he stood to leave. "I will be back tomorrow."

He allowed her to nod before sweeping past the small figure, his healthy hand daring to brush against her upper arm. But he hesitated at the door when he heard her weeping, trying to muffle her sobbing with a hand over her mouth. There was no pity in Itachi's eyes when he slowly turned around to see Sakura standing dumbly in the same position, her shoulders shaking with each sob.

"A ninja shouldn't wear her emotions on her sleeve."

Sakura spun around, letting her hand fly to his face with the momentum, only to be stopped easily and effortlessly by the taller man. Those crystal tears slid down her face, anger and bitterness clearly shining in the darkness as the light of the candles blew themselves out by the slightest breeze from Itachi's robe.

With a gritted wail sounding in her throat, the kunoichi sank into his chest while crying openly and forcefully.

"I hate being alone." She whispered brokenly into his chest, her voice cracking slightly because the rawness of her throat.

"I have gotten used to it." He said monotonously, neither moving to or from the woman.

"How?" She questioned as she lifted her head to look into those ruby orbs, "Why?"

Itachi's eyes seemed to become hooded to make his appearance a little less frightening and less austere. Sakura felt her stomach do a flip at his beauty and his prowess, but she fought the feeling back and remained calm. She noticed that the two facial lines that drew from the bridge of his nose to the middle of his cheeks looked more distinct than usual.

"To be strong is to be isolated."

His gentle lips formed the words that he had never repeated to anyone but the little brother who had once chased the dream of revenge, and he felt strangely detached as he said it. Sakura looked away and her eyes caught her old friend on the dresser. Fresh tears welled from her unique green eyes as she reached over to tenderly pick it up.

"I've never been strong, Uchiha Itachi, so why am I this alone?" Sakura asked as she gazed lovingly at the worn stuffed animal.

"You aren't." He breathed to reassure her. But he had also seen the awareness in her eyes when he had leaned in closer. It would serve to warn her.

"Be wise, do you wish to challenge me?"

Sakura looked at him in surprise and confusion, her mind unable to make sense of what he had just said, wondering if she was in a trance or a dream. She frowned, her sleepy senses begging for sleep, and she unconsciously tightened her hold on his robe.

"I have to." She murmured drowsily, the rest of her remaining energy spent on her tears and crying.

"You will suffer then. There is no going back." He bent down to scoop her up in his arms and carried her light weight on her bed, not bothering to cover her with the sheets. Itachi had to leave before dawn.

Turning to go, he stopped when he felt Sakura's small hands grasping the hem of his cloak. Itachi knew danger even when it was a mile away. He couldn't stay any longer. Prying her fingers from his robe, he stepped out of her reach.

"Don't disappoint me."

He was gone.

* * *

_Scene III: Countdown

* * *

_

The same familiar clearing in the forest came into view and Uchiha Itachi halted briefly to check for chakra before safely arriving beside his companion. Kisame was training as he wielded his oversized sword over his head, his speed and delicacy sure to catch many jounins off guard.

The shark resembling man sniffed the air again. "The poison is still there."

"She worked on the wound for tonight. I will return again tomorrow." The Uchiha etched another think mark on the bark next the one from last night. "She has three days, Kisame."

The two Akatsuki members paused in their limited conversation to listen to the wind that sighed greatly, as if troubled and burdened by something. They looked gravely at each other, knowing that the wind was usually carefree and playful.

"There isn't much to lose."

Kisame narrowed his eyes. "Iie, there is _nothing_ to lose."

* * *

_Scene IV: Second Dance

* * *

_

Haruno Sakura had two mentors whom she trusted with her life: Hatake Kakashi and the Godaime.

Tsunade knew that something was troubling her pupil and apprentice but she also knew that Sakura would never talk about it; after all, it was a private topic and a sensitive one at that. However, she was wary of something when Sakura was late to their once-a-week brunch, showing up half an hour after the designated time with tired dark circles under her eyes.

"I know something has to be wrong." The friendly Hokage tried to say cheerfully.

Sakura only shook her head and fiddled with the peas on her plate using one of her chopsticks. "I'm tired." She said flatly.

"I know, Sakura." Tsunade said, catching the aggravated tone in her voice.

"I'm _really_ tired." She said a little softly.

The elder woman sighed and patted her hand. "I'm sure you'll do fine. There's nothing wrong, is there?"

The pink-haired kunoichi faltered before nodding. "Everything is fine." She lied.

Tsunade's auburn eyes glimmered before settling down. "Are you sure?"

Sakura nodded firmly. "I'm sure."

Suddenly, the Hokage looked up in surprise—almost a fearful look passed over her face—but a wide smile spread across it instead. "Kakashi, I'm glad you're here. Did you eat yet?"

The gray haired shinobi smiled lazily and held up a loose hand in greeting, his eyes creasing in a laughing manner. "I'll pass on the food, but keeping two beautiful ladies company doesn't seem like a bad idea."

Sakura shifted uneasily at his smile, guilt squirming in her chest under his piercing gaze that didn't look completely angry, but she knew better than to think that Kakashi had forgotten about their last encounter. She held back from speaking openly, merely answering her mentors' questions and comments with a murmured simple phrase or word.

The Godaime ran her hand through her golden hair as she gave Kakashi a coded look that he couldn't really decipher. "Sakura, why don't you go home and rest up? You still look tired."

Sakura grimaced before standing. "I'll just keep myself busy at the hospital. Don't worry about me and just enjoy the brunch."

But instead of going to the hospital, the kunoichi ventured into the forest in order to find a peaceful place to rest her mind and perhaps take a light nap. Sakura breathed deeply the fresh air of the woods, enjoying how relaxing its effects were on her system and her lungs. Clasping her hands behind her back, she bent down to survey several different types of flowers, wondering if any of them had healing properties secretly hidden away.

The sun filtered through the canopy of deliciously lush green treetops, sprinkling her with golden sparkles and teasing her skin with soft kisses as she walked further along. The breeze languidly played with her long pink tresses while the grass swayed in a music only heard by the natural inhabitants of the woods.

There were no roads to guide her petite feet but she preferred it this way; Sakura could pretend for a day that she was no one but Sakura, who was a girl that loved simplicity in all aspects. Leaves were light with dew and the birds chattering above the woman, excited by the newcomer and greeting her with joy.

Abruptly like a cannon, the forest hushed, the cheerful singing and chatter subdued by a strange presence that felt misplaced among them. It was quiet and the smile on Sakura's face vanished with the forest sounds when she realized that it had been a big mistake coming alone.

He never uttered a word as he approached from behind but Sakura could feel that familiarity of dread and fear washing over her once more. The Uchiha could already strike her numb with that deadly silence. She cursed him for being so controlled and being able to control.

She had to breathe in deeply as she closed her eyes to soothe the pounding headache drawing near. "Leave me alone, Uchiha Itachi."

There was a moment of silence as the wind swirled between them before she felt him right up against her back, his hands barely touching her shoulders and his breath hot on her neck. There wasn't even time to gasp.

"Let's dance…Sakura."

His warm breath almost shattered her fragile ear, some kind of emotion exploding inside of her as she felt her body respond gracefully and almost in second nature. The geisha part of her was reawakened once more as she shied away from him almost flirtatiously, her mind hardly conscious of what she was doing. But, she swayed and twirled anyway, her body language speaking a myriad of emotions into one movement.

Sakura could not have noticed the rapid spinning of the Sharingan. Her sight was suddenly seeing out into an empty room from a lonely stage alighted with elegant candles. She danced as if in a trance to the coaxing melody of a flute and the drums beating at a pianissimo to match the quiet volume of the instrument. This time dressed in a kimono of white and green, Sakura was dancing only for an audience of one.

Beauty was an undefined word.

Grace was hard to acquire.

Uchiha Itachi knew she possessed both.

The male shinobi watched with obvious interest, but always keeping his mind alert on what she was: his only ticket to a properly working arm. True deceit was never too apparent and always performed at the quietest pianissimo. This was truth and this was reality, but he could dwell in misconception of the Sharingan for a little while.

Their first encounter was a dance of their physical bodies. This second one would now start their dance of control and lies.

Sakura's dance came to a close, the bottom part of her face hidden by a green fan. The eyes of the same tint looked up at him suddenly.

Itachi was sure to win.

* * *

**Ending notes: **Alright, again, I'm sorry for the lateness, but I had some blocks and the lack of motivation to write. With the holidays, I was busy and lazy with food and friends so I didn't do much writing.

Hope you didn't mind the ending.

I've actually put so much double meanings in this chapter that maybe I've made my intentions too obvious. This is sad.

Thank you for your reviews and comments. Always much appreciated.


	4. Act IV

**Beginning notes:** An update! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto.

* * *

Pianissimo—Act IV

_Scene I: Progress_

* * *

Sakura had never been afraid of the dark, not even when she was a little girl.

No, rather she was terrified of it.

The kind of darkness that she was now drowning in was a new kind of terror that she had never known throughout her years. It was heavy, like a thick woolen blanket, and oppressive. It was pregnant with the hope of nothing and the rebirth of death and silent like the meadows in frozen winter. Sakura could only lay in cold silence while wishing away the dark to go away, feeling like a little child once more. Slowly counting backwards to calm her frantic mind, she resisted succumbing to the irrepressible urge to scream.

She awoke with a start, her breaths coming hurriedly and harshly. Her room was dark with the exception of a small sliver of light trailing from her window and the only sounds in the room were her breaths. It seemed to grate against the silence and the soft rustling of her sheets joined it in its strange harmony as she slid her legs over the side of the bed.

The bare-legged kunoichi stumbled to the door—her head spun and pounded—and her hand momentarily slipped as she tried to grasp the doorknob. Wrenching her door open, she flew to the bathroom and leaned over the toilet as she violently vomited. Sakura felt her stomach lurch another time and retched again.

Weakly, she turned on the faucet of the sink and rinsed the foul sourness in her mouth. Sakura rested her weight upon a hand while leaning against the sink as she massaged her temple with the other. Her breathing was hard and fast and she had to take a deep, shaky breath to calm her exhausted lungs.

"A side effect after experiencing a strong bout of the dojustsu of the Sharingan." Uchiha Itachi said emotionlessly at the doorway of the restroom.

The medic almost tripped over her own feet as she scrambled away from him. "What did you do to me?"

"I had to." He replied shortly.

"How did I get here?"

He stared at her with one eyebrow ever slightly raised and didn't answer her.

"How long have I been out?" She asked feebly while barely being able to get her legs to stop wobbling.

"Since late afternoon." Itachi was dressed plainly in a mesh shirt and black pants, his cloak missing from his usual attire. "Come, you don't have much time."

_You mean _you_ don't have much time._ Sakura thought to herself coldly as she followed clumsily after him into the bedroom again.

Itachi felt weak; the use of the Sharingan had worn him out. He could feel his burdened heart beating sluggishly, unhealthily in his chest but he refused to show his current state.

Again, he was seated in the middle of her sheets, this time his awareness was able to catch her fragrant scent permanently embedded in the blankets. It gave him a reason to relax just a little. Sakura sat in front of him, waiting silently, tiredly, until he was able to get his arm in full sight of her lighted candle.

The color of his arm had almost returned to a pale peach and the chaffing had reduced significantly. The wound was much better and only left a large scar. All she had to do now was to slip out the poison.

Forming a bubble like aura around her hands, the kunoichi was able to dip it through his arm, catching some of the venomous liquid. The poison was resisting her and hesitant to leave its host; it was almost as if it created a mind of its own.

"What is it?" He asked, observing the slight concern that had washed over her pretty countenance.

She shook her head before continuing. Sakura tried again, only to capture even less than what she had gotten on the first try. "The poison isn't responding to my chakra."

Itachi tensed visibly and his eyes narrowed dangerously, threatening her nonverbally. She felt her spine tingle with fear and apprehension but she hid it well behind a look of concentration, nervously looking away from those malicious, empty eyes.

"We'll bleed it out. I'll need the poison to make something that can counter it." She said.

He looked at her carefully, the suspicion evident in his orbs, while he fingered the kunai that he had kept with him. "You said there was no antidote."

Sakura nodded. "There isn't, but I can find something that can subdue the poison while I try to reverse the damage that my chakra is doing to your arm."

Gracefully, the kunoichi slipped out to her kitchen with her candle, not caring if Itachi followed her or not. Here, she opened several cabinets and Itachi was able to see that they were dried herbs and plant medicine; he watched as she quickly got to work.

Nimble fingers took hold of several bags of herbs, glancing at their labels and carefully sorting them by their potential usefulness, as she dug through her cabinets. The Uchiha ironically felt idiotic while standing behind the chair across from her and eventually made up his hesitant mind to help. He wasn't sure what he was exactly supposed to do, but time was precious, and he didn't have anymore to spare. Kneeling beside an open cabinet, Itachi reached in for the bags to place them in her sight so that all she had to do was to read their labels.

The young woman was strangely comforted by his effort to make her job as easy as he could, though she knew that he had other selfish reasons. Sakura hurriedly looked through the herbs and was able to gather the ones that she needed. Standing up with the bags in her arms, she went over to her kitchen counter and laid out all of her ingredients along with water, a bowl, and a knife.

"I will need your blood now." She said in a whisper as if she was afraid to disturb the dim silence between them.

Itachi nicked his skin and blood trickled from the small wound and Sakura was able to catch about a teaspoon into her little bowl. Busily, she worked while the man sat down on the chair, observing her cautiously.

The candle between them signified the secrecy of their meetings late at night and her shame that she wanted to hide. The Uchiha had a vague idea of what she was thinking. Helping a criminal recover and keeping it a secret from everyone. If she was found, she would be declared as a traitor.

"Did Sasuke manage to injure you during your battle?"

It was sudden and she carefully kept her head down, but the inquiry bore significant weight in its meaning and Itachi felt compelled to answer it. "No."

Her hands continued to work but her eyes were distant. "So he really never stood a chance?"

The Akatsuki member finished storing away the herbs again and stood to his full height. "There was not enough hate."

A bitter smirk clouded Sakura's pink lips as she carefully poured out the sticky contents from the bowl onto her hands. "Because he had our love."

Sakura stood while molding the dark dough-like paste and led him back to the bedroom. The door clicked shut again. She rubbed the herbs over the small wound that Itachi cut on his arm. Her fingers massaged his skin, his muscles, and Itachi couldn't help but breathe out in contentment.

"It was a battle to the death. I was not to give him another chance." The Uchiha said quietly, looking into her emerald eyes.

"Did you not love Sasuke?" Sakura asked of him the forbidden question that he never could answer without lying.

He remained silent and she did not wait for his answer. Instead, the kunoichi took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she laid her hands on his arm and concentrated. The warm blue glow of chakra began to neutralize the poison with the help of the herbs, but fighting against one's own chakra was a devastatingly exhausting process. The flow of chakra in Itachi's arm was chaotic, without any balance or pattern, which disrupted the arm's normal functions and nerves. Sakura had to counter all of that.

After two hours of intense healing, Sakura could not open her eyes anymore. She was dead on her feet. Her chakra automatically stopped before it reached a critically depleted level and she slumped against Itachi's chest, fast asleep.

It was still dark and the male ninja gathered the petite female in his arms and placed on her bed, this time taking care to cover her with the blankets. The poison was not all neutralized, but it was good progress indeed. Itachi could grudgingly agree that she deserved some rest.

* * *

_Scene II: Tallies_

There was a third little tally mark on the bark of the tree in the little clearing that early morning.

* * *

_Scene III: Private Meeting_

Hatake Kakashi was tired of lies. He wanted to hear some truth and he wanted to hear it from the woman in charge of everything: Tsunade. As always, though he respected the woman in everyway, he appeared in her office with a small pop and a ball of smoke. The Godaime, believe it or not, was stooped over a scroll that she immediately rolled back up when she heard him enter.

"Kakashi, what brings you here?" She asked in mild surprise. "You don't usually come in like that unless you want some privacy. Maybe you shouldn't be allowed this privilege since you seem to take advantage of it." Her amber eyes twinkled merrily, meaning no harm in her words, but the Copy Ninja bowed respectfully.

"Is this a bad time, Hokage-sama?" He asked, his face void of the usual lazy grin.

Tsunade stopped smiling and cleared her throat. "No, not at all. Sit." She gestured to a chair.

He shook his head. "I'll be quick." Kakashi's eye seemed accusing, but she paid no mind to it.

"I think Sakura is in danger, and I don't want her to get hurt. Even this morning, she was absent to the jounin meeting." Kakashi began. "She seems tired and I know there is something that she's not telling me. Perhaps she has confided in you."

Pale, golden eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise. "It's not like you to ask me to betray someone's trust. This must be serious." She frowned thoughtfully as she rested her chin upon her gathered hands. "Sakura has only told me that she is tired. Of what, I'm not sure. Perhaps I am overworking her in the hospital while she juggles around missions."

He shook his head. "No, she had bruise markings on her neck from a human hand. She tried to tell me that Naruto had mistaken her for an intruder when she went to visit him and had attacked her." Kakashi scratched his head in a frustrated manner.

"I will talk to Sakura and let you know if something is going on. After all, she is my student and I don't want her getting hurt either. I'm glad you came to me and calling this to my attention."

He bowed again. "I'm only looking out for her. She is all I have left from Team 7."

Tsunade smiled gently and nodded in an understanding way. "Of course, Kakashi. Take care for now. I will call as soon as I find out something."

He disappeared and Tsunade sighed. "Sakura, what is going on?"

_Scene IV: Letters_

Sakura could only think of one thing to do after she woke up groggily from her recuperating sleep. The sun filled her room with warm light, and she had to stop to appreciate its warm beauty compared to the coldness of the night.

Breakfast was little, but it did fill her small appetite. The empty seat in front of her made her nostalgic of the days when Team 7 had dominated. Now, she was all alone in her team, the only member existing in Konoha, but sometimes she wish she'd never existed at all. Sakura slowly approached to her drawers and knelt in front of it, reaching out to slide out the last one with hesitant hands. Digging through the many pieces of various papers, she achieved a thin box that she had not opened in seven years.

The little tarnished metal clasp that held the lids together had been broken a long time ago when she had thrown it against her wall in a fit of rage. The said wall still bore its angry mark behind a mirror. Sakura now fingered it the smooth wood and cautiously opened it to peek inside it as if she was discovering a new present.

Mounds of letters that she had left untouched still remained with their curious feeling of care and tenderness, bringing fresh, wistful tears to her eyes. She took out the bundle gently and shifted through them one by one, noticing the change of her penmanship throughout the years of when they were written. None of them possessed a reply from the addressed, but only her words and her heart written inside each one.

"At least, if you were going to die, you could have injured the man you were out to kill."

Her tone was bitter yet loving at the same time, but she was trembling at the sudden rush of rage against her will. Sakura couldn't stand the sight of her own handwriting to the love of her life, one that was dead and buried a long time ago. Gripping the fragile, aged paper in her hands, she pulled them apart, enjoying how each rip seemed to echo in her head. Almost maniacally, she shredded the letters one by one, white lonely pieces fluttering down around her like feathers.

"I'm angry at you, Uchiha Sasuke. You liar." The kunoichi whispered hopelessly. "I hate you for making all of this happen. If only you'd killed him, he wouldn't be here, and I wouldn't feel like I'm betraying everyone."

Surrounded by the torn letters like party confetti, the rosette looked up with dull eyes but did not find what she was looking for on top of the drawers. Frowning, she gazed around, wondering where she could have left the patched up stuffed animal but soon gave up at the tiring headache it gave her. The room seemed to resonate with loneliness.

Sakura did not pick up the remaining pieces of the letters. Instead, she made herself a cup of warm coffee while she hid the bags of herbs in her cabinets again and washed the bowl where she had mixed the paste for Itachi's arm. The dry, flaky remains crumbled under the pressure of her fingers as she fingered it.

There was a knock on her door, something that seemed to be happening rather often, and Sakura had to quickly rinse off the bowl and hide it in her cabinet. Calmly substituting an emotionless face with a small smile, she opened the door, hoping and praying that it wasn't Kakashi.

It wasn't.

It was Tsunade. Sakura let out a big smile and stepped back. "Shishou!"

The older woman gave her a wink. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, Sakura."

"No, no, of course not. I was just reading a book." The rosette lied easily as she closed the door behind her teacher.

Sakura made her teacher sit on the couch while she fixed the tea. Tsunade was not one to be gullible, so the apprentice decided to play it smart and safe. "I just ran out of green tea. Want some coffee instead?"

The Hokage grimaced and shook her head. "It's either green tea or sake, preferably sake."

"I have a bottle." The jounin opened up her refrigerator and took out the cold sake bottle and grabbed two cups. She poured out the spirit and waited until Tsunade drank first. Sakura felt the cool liquid slip down her throat and the effect of the alcohol began to grasp her mind immediately.

After many drinks, Tsunade said in a low voice, "Kakashi is getting suspicious. Whatever you're doing, it's getting too obvious, Sakura."

The sake had allowed her to become free from pain and all emotions except anger. Her emerald orbs glinted dangerously and drunkenly while their owner began to tremble. "What do you want from me? Isn't all of this enough? While I'm here risking my neck for my village, you have the _nerve_ to tell me something is getting obvious? I don't give a _damn_ about being obvious." Sakura savagely hissed while she slammed her cup down, causing it to shatter in her hand.

"You're drunk, Sakura. I just wanted to warn you. I give you free reins to do whatever you wish." Tsunade replied coolly, unaffected by her loss of temper.

"Not even going to ask what I'm doing?" The girl sneered.

The Godaime nodded. "I trust you."

Her words proved to have a much different effect on Sakura. The younger woman's furious countenance turned into a pained, crestfallen look as she tried to hold back the tears. "What if I do something stupid?"

"If you doubt yourself, you shall." She said simply. "Man, you're really bad a holding your alcohol. Don't let Jiraya catch you. He'll never let you live it down."

There was no response from her pupil and Tsunade couldn't deny that it didn't hurt her in some way. Sakura was like a daughter, and seeing her depressed and angry allowed her to see everything in a different light indeed.

"I'll take my leave, Sakura. Be careful." The Hokage left without another word.

The room was silent and the female shinobi's head swam with dizziness and fatigue, as if the short conversation had cost her a large part of her stamina. It was hard to accept the fact that Kakashi couldn't trust her enough, and that her teacher didn't seem to care if she was this tired at all. She wished Naruto was there with her, helping her and joking with her until all of her worries had faded with the morning.

The afternoon went by uneventful except for a quick visit to the Hyuuga manor to see her ANBU captain, Hyuuga Neji. He had also noticed the change in her and asked out of politeness if she had been worn out from the previous mission.

"Iie, Hyuuga-san, I'm just tired from staying up late at night." She said with a forced smile.

He raised an eyebrow but didn't comment further. Neji quietly asked after Hinata and about how she was faring with Naruto, if Sakura had seen them as of late. She was glad to bring him glad tiding about them. The Hyuuga seemed relieved and content that the true heir of the clan was doing fine and was happy with her husband.

He escorted her into the market where she wanted to buy some herbs and bid her to have a languid remainder of the day, not knowing that he'd just reminded her of the impending night. It was all Sakura could do not to wince in front of him or give anything away. Instead, with a large happy smile that did not quite reach her eyes, she returned the greeting and left.

Her apartment was empty and when she went to her room to change, she saw the tattered letters on the floor and she regretfully swept them up before throwing the pieces away, feeling like she was throwing away a large piece of her heart.

* * *

_Scene V: Sake and a Bear_

* * *

Itachi splashed cool river water on his naked chest after a spar of weapons with Kisame. He glanced at his reflection in the stream and got up stretch out his cramped muscles.

"Oi, you want some sake?" The shark-like ninja dangled a half-full bottle of sake and tossed a cup in Itachi's direction when he agreed with a nod. "The arm looks better. It's almost time?"

Itachi nodded again and sipped the sake without really tasting it. "She is skilled in medical training, but she is foolish."

"All bitches are like that." Kisame grunted out his stereotype.

The Uchiha didn't reply and absently toyed with a kunai with his injured hand. The long, fresh scar would remain there until his death, whenever that was to be. He gazed at the smooth texture of the new skin but thought nothing of it, and then he looked at his sake cup. "A fool indeed…"

If she wished to try him, he would show her the mercilessness of an Akatsuki and he would give her the taste of ice of an Uchiha. Itachi slipped something worn and soft from inside his cloak and he examined it carefully, seeing if it contained an answer for him.

The strange stuffed animal looked even worse up close, with its poorly stitched sides and missing eye. He fingered the remaining red button that hung on just barely by a thin red thread and then softly touched its rough nose, vaguely remembering a face that it seemed to conjure in his mind. Itachi set it down on the ground, watching it droop forward rather pathetically, and almost smiled at her childishness.

"Looks like a horse trampled over that piece of shit." His partner growled with a dreadful smile, showing his row of jagged teeth. "Is it hers?"

"I wanted to keep it for her. She will need to know who did it."

Kisame grunted again. "You want her to know? Wouldn't the entire village know then?"

Uchiha Itachi stared in the general direction where Konoha lay. "No, she will come alone."

"All bitches are like that."

* * *

_Scene VI: Recovery_

* * *

It was late into the night and Sakura didn't dare sleep as she waited for Itachi. It would be the fourth day and it was almost time. She would be able to heal his arm completely tonight.

It had to be tonight.

The light curtains which hung over her windows fluttered, indicating his arrival. The medic nin stood from her bed without really knowing why.

"Let's get this over with." She said softly.

They took their usual places and Sakura found it much harder to heal without the help of the herbs of last night. Slowly, gradually, the chaotic chakra in his arm had been undone and a healthy flow was restored.

Sakura was panting with the effort even after she was done and neither of them moved from where they were, the woman mainly wondering what to do next.

"I will not be responsible for what happens next. Remember your challenge. You will suffer."

"I am already suffering," She said without passion.

His hand brushed against her wrist. "Do you hate me?"

"Yes."

"Enough to kill me?"

"More than that."

"Liar."

"I will hate you more than Sasuke ever could." She said, wondering if she really meant it.

"You will? It is too late to collect hate now. I let Sasuke live for many years to allow that hate to grow, but even then, it wasn't enough." Itachi trailed a finger along her jaw.

"It is enough to do this."

In a millisecond, Sakura pulled out a kunai and thrust in front of her toward his heart, but he dodged almost easily and stood a few feet from her. There were no words. She launched again—he dodged again—and lightly landed on the wall, her chakra keeping her from falling, and pushed off once again. Itachi met the kunai with another of his own and with a free hand, he summoned a little jutsu to jab her neck. Green eyes went wide and she made a choking noise as she held her throat while doing a flip over the bed.

"Is this what everything has come to?"

Itachi stared at her but didn't reply before closing his eyes. "Tsunade could have chosen another for this mission."

"When did you find out?"

"As soon as I saw your eyes when we first met." He reopened his eyes and they were crimson and black. It spun faster and faster. "Deception is a quiet art form."

Haruno Sakura gripped her weapon. Her hands were cold. "What is your deception?"

"You will see."

He created a horrible genjutsu in his mind and transferred it into her stunning eyes. He was successful in knocking her out.

Itachi stepped over her still body and glanced at her terrible beauty once more. "You have no hate. You could have killed me easily tonight. It will be a price to be paid."

* * *

**Ending notes: **Sorry for the long wait. Thanks for all of your wonderful comments and reviews. They mean a lot! Keep an eye out for another update! 


	5. Act V

**Beginning notes:** Finally updated! It's winter break for us, and I was taking a break from writing a huge research paper. Please enjoy this chapter. It's actually decent.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto.

* * *

Pianissimo—Act V

_Scene I: Unbearable_

* * *

She had chickened out, and now there would be hell to pay. Tsunade would not let this go.

Her apartment was empty but the signs of their earlier struggle still evident. Sakura was slumped on the couch, unmoving, her hands limply grasping a kunai. A ball of smoke appeared in front of her, but her green eyes focused on something distant, and paid no attention to Kakashi standing before her.

He looked around in shock. "What happened, Sakura?"

Sakura looked up dully. "I messed up." Her voice was a quiet, defeated whisper.

"What's going on? Did someone attack you?" He asked.

Sakura did not answer him. "I have to go, sensei." She got up, her eyes unmoving from where they stared at the distant part of the floor.

"You can't keep avoiding me, Sakura. Tell me what is going on!" He snapped, his gray eye darkening with anger.

The kunoichi kept walking while slowly gripping the kunai in her hand and Kakashi stared at her back before suddenly appearing in front of her. She did not fight when he kissed her with a violent passion through his mask. When he pulled away, Sakura's eyes were now focused at the floor.

"How long?" She asked softly.

"Too long." He replied.

She lifted her eyes to stare into his face and she attempted a brave smile, only to have it unnaturally contort her beautiful face. "I'm sorry, sensei."

"It's alright. There is nothing to be sorry for." He said.

Sakura shook her head and gazed to her right, her window revealing a dreary morning. "There are a lot of reasons that I have to be sorry. I'm sorry I let you down."

Kakashi gazed at her sadly and with pity. "You can't let me down."

"But I'm afraid even you can't forgive me this time, sensei."

"What are you going to do?"

She gave him a weak smile while holding back tears. "I have to see Naruto."

Kakashi sighed and he rubbed his hand over his face. "There is nothing that I can do for you now."

The air whistled past her as she sped over to the hiding place of the Uzumaki couple, her hair whipping against her face and partially blinding her as she leapt out of the woods into the clearing. Rain began to drizzle.

As she approached the clearing, the trees around her were felled as if hit by a gigantic force, the ground torn up and a huge crater rest in the middle. The forest seemed to sigh with melancholy, the atmosphere oppressive and foreboding. Sakura became breathless, her lungs refusing to work as she advanced towards the destroyed front porch. Her stomach was like a rock. The eerie quiet was broken by the sudden flight of ravens and their startled cries. Her heart pounded like the drums as she slid open what remained of the door.

She vomited.

Just like in her dream, Uzumaki Hinata lay on the floor with a gash along her pale throat, her white eyes sightless and the traces of her precious tears remnant on her face. Her blood was splayed on the floor and the walls which told a clear story of where and how she was attacked. Her fingers were broken—the Hyuuga clan's specialty of the Gentle Fist apparently was ineffective in this case—and her kimono was torn revealing massive bruising on her arms and legs. Sakura vomited again.

When she took a shaky step forward, she saw that Naruto was huddled in the corner, rocking like a pendulum back and forth…back and forth…back and forth… His eyes, normally lit with passion like a pair of fiery sapphires, were now dull and lost. His clothes were rags and blood covered his body like paint, some belonging to him and others belonging to Hinata.

She rushed to him and hugged him to her chest to reassure him that she was there for him. Naruto did not resist but remained in his curled position against her. Sakura pulled away and tried to smooth away his blood-caked blonde hair from his face.

"Are you okay?"

He looked at her with his beautiful orbs and he tried to speak. When no sound came out, he cleared his throat and tried again.

"Who are you?"

And the world seemed to crash around her.

* * *

_Scene II: The Wait_

* * *

"That genjutsu must have taken a lot out of you. What the hell did you do?" Kisame asked as they stopped to rest for the third time in an hour. Itachi was sitting down on a stump, meditating to regain some of his strength, and he answered calmly with his eyes closed.

"I erased his memories. The jutsu usually take more than this, but the shock of seeing his wife getting killed made it easier."

The shark man spat on the ground as he dropped his burden on the ground. "He's heavy."

Itachi looked at Naruto unconscious on the forest floor. He was covered in blood and wounds; he'd fought them tooth and nail to protect his wife until the very end. Even the Uchiha had to admit that the Kyuubi was by far the most powerful of them all. The two of them were gravely injured but when they killed the Hyuuga heiress, he had momentarily dropped his guard, allowing Itachi to perform a forbidden genjutsu of the Sharingan. "Sakura should be at the house by now with the clone."

"Let's go. They will be after us soon." Kisame threw Naruto's limp body over his shoulder. "The sooner we get the Kyuubi to the Akatsuki, the sooner we get paid."

The last Uchiha tossed a glance up at the gray sky. "And we shall wait there for her."

* * *

_Scene III: The Fool _

* * *

Sakura's eyes filled with tears as unspeakable agony waved over her heart as she took a step back from Naruto. She wildly looked around with panic, suppressing her sobs as she tried to make sense of the situation. Hinata's hollow eyes seemed to follow her, haunting her conscience and blaming her for what had happened.

She stumbled about the room—Naruto had returned to rocking in the corner—and tripped on a loose board from the floor, sending her sprawling face forward. It was then that her tears exploded from her eyes and she sobbed while lying on her stomach, her heart wrenching from its place as she realized the dire consequences she was about to pay. Through her tears, she saw a familiar object near her arm, its limp body barely supporting itself as it sat innocently, its red buttoned eye hanging from a thread.

Gasping for air, the kunoichi picked up her doll and stared at it in disbelief. Then, everything clicked. Itachi.

Her hand gripped her little doll and roughly wiped away her tears. She tossed it aside, abandoning it on the broken floor, and she respectfully approached Hinata's body to wash her and cover her with a cloth. It was the least she could do before she could inform the village of what occurred to the Uzumaki couple. Sakura scrawled a brief letter addressing the Hokage and sent it by a messenger hawk.

Sakura checked her weapon pouch for adequate supplies and she padded her jounin vest for more. Her rosy bangs brushed against Naruto's face as she leaned close to his huddled body, incessantly rocking back and forth like a troubled child.

"Naruto, I'll kill Itachi for you. Stay put and don't go anywhere; people are coming to get you and Hinata." She whispered as if speaking any louder would break his fragile mind. "I love you, Naruto."

She steeled her nerves and faced the north; she had found tracks heading that way in the surrounding area. Haruno Sakura cast a final glare at the disowned doll on the floor.

"I am such a fool."

On her way north, she found that the Akatsuki pair was being careless in hiding their tracks…either that, or they were purposely leading her in their direction for a trap. She would choose the latter: Itachi was not stupid, and she had learned that the hard way. Deceiving him once was hard enough, and now he was out with a vengeance to make her suffer for her sin. He enough pride to make a country jealous.

She would have to play it smart, or she would die. The latter option wasn't so bad right now. Even if she somehow managed to return alive, the Village would disown her forever and the title of "traitor" would be added instead of "head ANBU medic." Sakura did not expect any more. She would not be surprised if she was exiled into Water Country or the far away Stone Country.

Sakura shook her head to clear her head of the thoughts. She had to focus on the task at hand. Her mistake had cost the precious life of the Hyuuga heiress and the future hokage's mind. There would be no turning back. If it could satisfy her, she would die to rectify what she had done. Not even Kakashi could stop her…

_I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei. You deserve someone better than your Sakura._

She darted across the thick tree branches, her pink hair flying back and her hands turning cold due to the drizzle. There was blood on some of the branches, perhaps indicating that they were heavily injured in their fight with Naruto. Good, it would make things easier.

The tracks suddenly turned west and the rosette had to calculate how far ahead they were from her position. She guessed not far. They were slower than usual; something was holding them back, like a burden. Sakura continued with renewed hope in catching up with them in a day, and she would travel as long as need be. Meanwhile, she would have to exercise her mind to at least have some chance against Itachi's Sharingan.

* * *

_Scene IV: Message Received_

* * *

No one really paid any attention to the screeching hawk that soared over the Hidden Village of the Leaf. Everyone was oblivious to the horrible message that it carried as the messenger of bad omens. It flew directly towards the Hokage Tower and landed on the widow sill, screeching to inform its arrival. Tsunade startled awake from her nap and glared at the bird with an intense abhorrence before wiping the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. She went to the bird as it held out its leg with the message tied to it, and the Hokage instantly recognized the pink ribbon with which Sakura usually tied her most urgent messages.

She almost tore it off and snapped it open, her golden eyes darting over the words that spelled out disaster. The ANBU would have to be called in, the Hyuuga clan informed, and the Village would have to be notified that their future Hokage now had the mind of an eight year old.

"Sakura, I trusted you." She sighed.

Kakashi stepped out of the shadows of her office. "Maybe you put too much on her shoulders."

Tsunade was not surprised by his presence. "No, I overestimated her mental strength. I should have known better. She would have found resemblance between the two Uchiha brothers. It is human nature to feel the same kind of emotions regarding similar people. She was still hurting about Sasuke, and assigning her to kill Itachi would have been like killing her old love."

"Sasuke and Itachi aren't the same person." Kakashi growled.

"Not to you, perhaps, Kakashi. Either way, the psychology behind this is screwed up anyway. I need the ANBU here in an hour." The Godaime swept across the floor to the double doors.

The Copy Ninja stopped her. "Where are you going?"

"To the Hyuuga House," she replied curtly, "to inform them that Hinata is dead."

Kakashi's visible eye grew in diameter in shock. "What about Naruto?"

Tsunade quickly concealed her tears at the mention of Naruto. "Read the letter on the desk. You will understand."

The veteran shinobi picked up the small scroll and recognized Sakura's neat handwriting. It said:

_Shishou,_

_I am sorry to disappoint you. I know I have failed in every possible way. Hinata is dead. Naruto has lost his memories. Uchiha Itachi must have cast a strong genjutsu on him. I am leaving him to you. Take care of him and I'm afraid that I have to ask you to tell the Hyuuga clan about Hinata. Please send the ANBU to Naruto's hiding refuge. _

_I will miss you and Konoha._

_Your devoted student._

Kakashi tucked the letter in his pocket and leapt out of the window. He would have to track her from Naruto's place.

"The things you make me do, Haruno Sakura."

* * *

_Scene V: Night and Nightmares_

* * *

Kisame and Itachi quickly made their way toward the Akatsuki headquarters. Night was falling, dimming the sky into black as they traveled through the trees without rest. Itachi had to rest but the duty to deliver the Jinchuuriki to the Akatsuki was far more pressing than stopping to rest his body and mind. The genjutsu that he had cast on Naruto had depleted his chakra to the point where he could hardly see where he was going. His Sharingan had receded into his regular obsidian color but they still burned from the inside. Each time he blinked, he had to force them back open. If he continued this kind of constant genjutsu, he would go blind, but by then, he would know his full potential and so there would be no need for him to carry on in the Akatsuki anyway.

Kisame glanced at his tired comrade and shifted Naruto's body more comfortably on his aching shoulder. "Let's find an inn for the night. I'm tired as hell."

"There is no time. We must get there by tomorrow."

The shark man sniffed the air. "We aren't far. If we rest tonight, we can still get there by noon tomorrow. You're not the one carrying this thing."

Itachi looked at him and sighed. "We will leave before dawn then."

They changed courses and Itachi checked all of his wounds as they made their way to a small town on the outskirts of the forest. They had stopped bleeding but if he did not get them bandaged, some had great risk of getting infected.

The Akatsuki pair arrived at a quaint inn ironically called the Sakura House which made Itachi's lips quiver into a small smirk. They paid for a room—it couldn't be helped that the landlady stared at Naruto's unconscious body as the transaction took place—and retired for the night. They decided to take turns in watching after Naruto, just in case he decided to wake, and Kisame took the first watch. Itachi was admittedly grateful for the rest as he propped himself comfortably against the wall to close his painful eyes.

Sakura gasped for breath as she rested against a tree trunk, exhausted from the all day pursuit of Itachi. It was getting too dark to track and she didn't have Byakugan abilities like Hyuuga Neji. Frustrated, she slammed her fist into the tree and growled impatiently since the Akatsuki was probably a good half a day ahead of her. It appeared that she would have to find shelter somewhere for the night.

The area was remote but there was clearing where she decided to sleep. Luckily, the night was not cold and she mostly stayed awake reminiscing about the old days past when Team 7 had been together. Sakura could still imagine Sasuke and Naruto bickering about who got to sleep where and who would get the last piece of cooked fish. Kakashi-sensei would be reading his perverted book while holding back Naruto from getting his ass kicked by Sasuke yet again.

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as she thought about them. Konoha was no longer that way. Only war, destruction, news of ninja lives being sacrificed for the selfishness of a few people, and terrible casualties of the innocent existed now. The carefree days of Team 7 and the other genin were gone. How many of her friends were dead and what of the precious ones they left behind?

Asuma-sensei…Shikamaru even took up smoking to deal with the loss of his beloved sensei.

Kiba…Akamaru had grown sick with grief and followed soon after.

Hinata…Her clan was now leaderless and an ambitious Hanabi would take her place. Hope to reunite the Main and Branch Houses were now lost forever.

Tenten…It was weird to label Neji as a widower.

Choji…He had lost his life to save Ino from a horrendous jutsu. His remains were never found. Both Ino and Shikamaru slipped in and out of depression for four long years.

There were so many others, but some simply stuck out as huge blows upon Sakura's heart. She sighed and rolled over on her side. The tired kunoichi closed her heavy eyes and it was a while before she could fall into a restless sleep.

_"Let's dance, Sakura." Itachi softly breathed into her ear. The drums began to pounded in a rapid rhythm. _

_Sakura whirled around to slash the vacant air with a kunai, her kimono flaring in a brilliant array of gold and silver. Itachi gracefully dodged a few paces back. His black eyes encased in beautiful eyelashes mesmerized her every being. She attacked again but failed to touch him. _

_"You're slower than usual, kunoichi. Perhaps you are still tied down by your life?" His ever impassive face seemed to radiate coldness. The indifferent countenance did not change as he continued to taunt her in his unique way. "Held by the Godaime, the village, your friends, your duty as a Leaf shinobi, and of course, my foolish little brother. Even still, you possess far too many burdens to kill me."_

_"This is what makes me human, Itachi." She snarled back as she slipped out another kunai. _

_"You cannot dream of killing me with those kinds of emotions still within you. Sasuke also believed that he had emptied himself, but he still had the remnants of Team 7 in his heart. If you cannot throw these useless things away, you will never know your full potential."_

_Sakura felt anger overpower her senses. "You are a deformed human being."_

_The Uchiha undid his Akatsuki robe and let it fall to the floor. "Soon, you shall be so."_

_"Never."_

_He stepped closer and closer until he was pressing his own firm body against her slender one, and he did not have to make her drop her kunai. Itachi was a good head taller than her and he looked down before dipping his face to kiss her quietly. Sakura could not resist as his hand slid down her thigh underneath her loose kimono to lift it level against his hip. Her instinctive reaction was to wrap her leg around his as his kisses moved down her neck. _

_Itachi noiselessly slipped out a kunai of his own and rammed it into her stomach. Sakura gasped at the shock of pain and surprise. Blood dribbled down from the corner of her mouth as she tried to intake air. She stared up at Itachi's horribly empty eyes as he stared back in passive observance, chilling her to the very bone. _

_"This is how you play the game, Sakura."_

_And the drums faded away in a pianissimo._

The rosette jerked awake and cold sweat dripped down her face. The first thing she did was to touch her stomach to see if anything had happened to it. It had felt so unbelievably _real_. Sakura looked around and it was still early in the morning, but there was a full moon shining. The light brightened the forest and she could see much easier. She could continue tracking them.

She shakily got up from her sleeping position and stretched out her muscles as much as she could before continuing west. Broken leaves, small amounts of blood splatter, and scratched bark were among the common things that she could see and track easily in the moonlight.

The leaves shimmered silver as she carefully trekked across the forest, her hope returning and gaining strength as more signs of the Akatsuki became visible. She would catch up to them by morning.

In their room of the Sakura House, Itachi's eyes snapped open.

* * *

**Ending notes:**I hope it wasn't a total bore. It's a little shorter than usual, but it's better than nothing! And I know I'm being a biatch when I end with evil cliff hangers, but you'll have to wait the next installment.

Thank you for your continuous support through all of this. I love you all.


	6. Act VI

**Beginning notes: **Another chapter is here for you. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto.

* * *

Pianissimo—Act VI

_Scene I: Discovery_

* * *

Haruno Sakura had traveled all through the early morning, and the great sun now aroused itself out of slumber and decided to bless the earth with its warm rays though it went unfelt by the exhausted kunoichi. She approached a small village, its cozy atmosphere beckoning her tired body towards it, and she almost collapsed as soon as she entered an inn. Perhaps after a light nap, she would start asking around for information regarding the two Akatsuki. The room was small and rather damp, but it was warm. She needed nothing more. Sakura slept for half the morning before forcing her body awake to gather information about their whereabouts since she had suddenly lost their tracks in the forest.

She used the public bathhouse of the town to cleanse her body from the sweat and dirt that had mounted on her skin a considerable amount after a full day's worth of hard travel. The bathhouse occupied most of her hour before she got out, her slender body dripping wet and noticeably attractive.

The bar was the next place on her list of places to visit, where the hubbub was loud and merry carousing took place, causing a light headache to take place. The bar was dim and smoke filled the ambiance which stung her eyes as she squinted to look for an empty table. It was possible that she could catch a stray conversation amongst the men if she could blend in.

The chair in which she took her seat was uncomfortable and worn, but she shifted slightly to overcome her discomfort and ordered a fresh drink from a plump waitress. Burly men sat around a table together, some with strange tattoos on their arms that seemed to crawl across the skin to make their unique designs. They spoke in loud, drunken voices that seemed very distinct from the rest of the conversations.

"Damn all them ninjas. These two came into me wife's inn like theys owned it. She couldn't say nothing to them since one of them looked like some shark. She called him a sharkman, she did." One exclaimed in a gruff voice. He continued cursing the ninjas. Sakura's ears perked up and she calmly slid towards them another seat with her drink in hand.

Another man began to speak. "I really want to go home now. When are we going back?"

"It's only a half day's travel from here. I'm going to see my wife first thing."

Her heart pounded with fear and excitement as news of the two Akatsuki's whereabouts was being registered into her mind. Sakura sipped the rest of her drink and began to plan in her head. She looked at a clock on the wall through the dim, smoky air and thought about their movements. Either way, there was no time to waste. They could already be on their way from the little town. She would have to travel at top notch to catch up with them.

* * *

_Scene II: Unnecessary_

* * *

Itachi had taken up the second watch after sleeping a recuperating five hours, his partner snoring loudly with his mouth open and his massive, gnarly hands twitching dangerously even his sleep. His black eyes traveled to the door of the small, windowless room that contained the Kyuubi carrier's unconscious form; he had not budged in the slightest from where they had left him on the floor. Itachi was not surprised for the memory erasing jutsu was purposefully a very powerful one. His eyes were still uncomfortably tight and they felt swollen, though there was no sign of irritation. But it could not be denied that his vision was blurred even more than it had been before.

Sakura had to get here before his sight became useless.

There was an uncontrollable desire to leave the room and escape to the freedom of the early morning. He sat in a tree until the sun rose from the horizon. His thoughts wandered from one place to another, unaware of the warmth of the sun on the bare skin of his arms which were exposed due to a lack of his black robe. He squinted to focus his hazed vision on a pink flower blooming on the ground below him, but he could not make out its petals or its leaves. Only the pale color stood out to his eyes.

"What is my potential?" He said to the listening trees.

They did not reply, but they sighed with his conscience with the gentle sway of their branches. Itachi held out his hand to catch a stray leaf and he gazed at it—the outlines of the leaf were still unclear to his eyes—until the wind whisked it away from his hand.

His impassive face remained unchanging as an understanding slowly came to him. "Will it elude me before I die?"

The Uchiha's lightning quick hand reached into his weapon pouch and launched a kunai into the tree trunk across from his tree. He heard it thud into the wood and it rang in his hollow heart.

"It's unnecessary to think about these things."

"Oi, what are you doing up there?" Kisame's gruff voice inquired below. "I was hoping to get some proper breakfast."

"There's no time."

The other smirked. "You know, I realized that we're two days ahead of schedule. They aren't expecting us soon."

Itachi was almost surprised. He had not thought about the deadline date. True, the excitement and his desire to reach another rung in his potential had made him forget about the mission's deadline. Indeed, they were ahead of schedule.

"Hn. I supposed breakfast would be good. You can watch the Kyuubi." He jumped from the tree branch and lightly landed without a sound.

Kisame grinned. "You'd better bring at least two bottles of sake."

* * *

_Scene III: Itachi_

* * *

Sakura was darting through the trees, sweat gleaming on her forehead as she traveled hard while watching for their tracks. With each step, she felt as if her heart would burst with the thought of the final confrontation between her and the last Uchiha. She had to kill him first, and she swore to Kami-sama that if she didn't, she would be reborn into the world again to do so. The kunoichi wondered how far she would take things, and how it would have been if they had met under different circumstances. Could they have been close? Lovers? Friends? Family?

She unconsciously shuddered at the thought of being lovers. It gave her a nervous, almost love-sick kind of pain in her stomach that she couldn't stand because it made her feel helpless, weak, and traitorous. But she was.

Haruno Sakura tried to remember the reason why she couldn't kill him in her apartment. How suddenly her strength seemed to ebb away and how weary her heart was when she faced him with the kunai. She had felt so used and so stupid…so hurt, as if killing the person was equivalent as murdering herself. The feelings had confused her and undeniably shook her to the core of her being, causing her to question her life and her actions, which was ultimately a path that shinobi never wanted to find.

Seeing his Sharingan incited feelings again, and at first, Sasuke was the first face she would be reminded of when she saw Itachi. But after awhile, after those three long nights together, she began to see Itachi for Itachi and his words had been a strange comfort to her as much as they had been torture. He had shown her the reflection of herself during the past dreary years without Team 7, and how alone she was without anyone to care for her. But his strength to endure such horrible loneliness was attractive and so was the way he touched her. His gentle fingers and strange ways of displaying comfort were so alluring that she had been blind to the invisible powers that drew her to him. Perhaps, if they had been together, they would have been less lonely. Somehow, in some way, they could have been something a little closer to happiness.

It was no longer the younger Uchiha that came to mind, but it was the elder. Itachi had shown her that it was no use grieving and that following one's desire was the best road of life. He succeeded in reawakening her long dormant emotions and need for a companion, and before she realized it, she found out that she had gone in too far. It was too late to back out. He had warned her many times, that if she wished to challenge him, she would have to take to the last breath of her life.

There enigmatic relationship began with a dance of their bodies and it had then turned into a dance of deceit. She wondered what the next dance would be like.

The world didn't really make sense, and Fate always seemed to work against her heart.

* * *

_Scene III: Questioning Potential_

_

* * *

_

Itachi, as he walked through the village commonly dressed in his black outfit, looked at the bustling people around, triggering memories deeply buried in his mind about the Uchiha village. There were so many happy faces, blissfully unaware just like his own clan before he had massacred them. Young women in the streets caught his handsome figure and whispered to each other, giggling girlishly as he brushed past them.

The town was too similar to the one where he born, and for the first time in his life, he found himself enjoying those memories. The hostile bristling that he felt whenever he entered a town like this had disappeared, with the urge to kill everyone in sight. Maybe it was thinking about Sakura that made him like this.

Speaking of the rosette, he wondered if she had found out about where they were staying. The prospect of meeting her again excited him, and he anticipated it with a queer sense of satisfaction and eagerness. Killing her could bring him to a satisfaction that he had yet more potential. If he killed her, then he could be sure that he was not held back in anyway from achieving that peak because he knew that the kunoichi was different to him than the rest. A heartless shadow of a smile reached his face. Just as he killed his best friend to possess the Mangekyou, he had to kill her to prove himself that his potential was not inhibited by a certain rose-haired shinobi.

The Uchiha picked up dango and tempura for a light brunch along with a bottle of sake. People gave him stares of admiration at his impressive stature and air as he silently went from store to store, wondering what to buy. Itachi knew Kisame would be starving and could probably eat the dango and the tempura by himself, and so Itachi merely got himself small snacks. He didn't feel like eating anyway.

He took the food back to the inn, and found Kisame lazily sharpening his sword with his back resting against the wall. He briefly opened the door to Naruto's room where the Jinchuuriki lay motionless in the corner. The shark-like shinobi grinned at the bags of food and set aside his sword.

"Finally, I was going to give you until noon to get back here." He caught a bag of food thrown his way. "The sake any good?"

"Aa, it's aged well." He slid the bottle across the floor, letting slide perfectly before his partner's feet.

Kisame and Itachi spent the next few minutes eating before the former broke the silence. "I can almost smell her. She's getting close. You're waiting for your potential, aren't you?"

"I will see how far I can go. I will stop at nothing."

Kisame stopped chewing. "You can't forget about the mission."

Itachi threw a glance at the closed door again. "Don't worry. I will kill her." His thoughts ran back to Sakura again, but then another face slowly made itself known to him.

_'I will avenge my family.'_

Those pathetic words still echoed inside of him, ringing their melody of pity and contempt as the face of his little brother arose in his mind. Sasuke's empty eyes had been filled with hatred but also mixed with sorrow and betrayal when he fought with him. Sorrow of what he went through without his parents; of leaving his only friends and turning against their kindness and care; of the bitter, lonely life he led; of not dying with his parents that fateful day; of realizing true love too late. With each little thing of sorrow, there took away the little spots of hatred that he needed to defeat Itachi. In the end, the avenger had died without accomplishing his goal, thus erasing all meaning of the life he had led up until that moment.

Essentially, life was a gamble. If one focused his life on one thing and did all he could to prepare for that one thing, he had two results awaiting him. One was to achieve that life goal, or the other was to fail it. If he failed, all of the sweat and blood that went into accomplishing that goal would have been for naught. Their potential then would end at the moment. Sasuke had failed, and he died knowing that all of the things that he gave up was ultimately for an empty death.

Itachi vague recalled what day it was, the battle between the remaining two Uchiha. He remembered the snow and the white forest, and he also remembered the blood spectacularly splashed against the white background. He loved the snow.

* * *

_Scene IV: Past_

* * *

Sasuke faced his hated brother, the man who had murdered his entire clan with his bare hands. The trademark obsidian orbs of the Uchiha clan were hooded as they surveyed the calm exterior of Itachi. Sasuke's breath crystallized in the air with each puff of his composed breathing, while the elder beheld the grown form of his little brother with little interest.

"It's been awhile." Sasuke said quietly. He was dressed in a white robe tied with purple rope, a typical Orochimaru fashion.

Itachi stood with an ever impassive countenance as he looked directly into his brother's eyes. "Still not enough hate, Sasuke. You cannot face me yet."

The hooded onyx eyes snapped open wide in fury at those repetitive words. "These past year, I have hated you to the core. You will fight me here today, and I will avenge my family."

As soon as Sasuke finished that sentence, he disappeared and reappeared behind Itachi in a speech that mildly surprised the older Uchiha, but it was one that was too easy to follow. He felt Sasuke's sharp kunai tip against his neck, but he took his hesitation by converting it into an opportunity. With a speed unmatched in both the Akatsuki and in Konoha, Itachi disappeared only to have Sasuke follow behind him.

"I am prepared to kill you."

Itachi leapt against a tree and pushed off of it to meet Sasuke face to face, his hand expertly wielding a kunai under his long robe sleeves. With the free hand, he reached out to grab his little brother's neck and allowed his greater momentum to slam his back against another tree trunk.

"If you are held back by anything other than hate, as you are now, you will die. Choose wisely because I will not give you another chance."

"I've lived to hate you." Sasuke spat viciously.

Itachi's eyes became red as they stared straight into Sasuke's. "You have regret in your eyes."

"I regret _nothing_." He hissed with venom as he shoved his brother away. His own eyes turned crimson.

Itachi closed his eyes. "Then I will make you regret."

When he opened them, the normal Sharingan had merged into the Mangekyou but Sasuke seemed ready for it. He faced it head on, a mistake that turned the battle completely to Itachi's favor.

The Tsukiyomi, the deadliest genjutsu known to the shinobi world, turned Sasuke's mind into a horrible mix of black and red. A red moon loomed overhead, and Sasuke's head was forced to look straight into it in order to watch a scene from too long ago, too deeply buried in his memories.

A fresh wave of shock washed over him as he gazed at the bodies of his murdered parents, and the pangs of loneliness pierced his heart with each moment of when he realized that he did not have friends during his solitary childhood.

Sasuke's eyes stung with unshed tears as he watched his 12-year-old form argue pointlessly with Uzumaki Naruto, and Sakura's temper raging whenever Naruto succeeded in making her angry.

He even saw their 15-year-old figures when they were reunited for the first time two and a half years, but as always, Sasuke had turned away from them.

He saw Orochimaru's disgusting face as he fingered the lining of his jaw as would a seducer. Sasuke couldn't stop shaking now. His body was numb and cold, as if he had swallowed a chunk of ice.

_Why didn't you kill me after you killed our parents? Why did you make me live this way? I'd rather die!_

A color distorted Sakura blocked his path out of the Konoha gates, her eyes deep and tearful as she spoke.

_'I love you with all of my heart!'_

And the one soft caress that he had the courage to give her unconscious form upon that cold bench.

Uchiha Sasuke broke.

The jutsu abruptly ended but it was quickly replaced by a merciless trust of a kunai into his stomach. He felt it pierce his stomach. Pain sang in his system as Sasuke staggered back, his mouth filled with the bitter taste of blood.

"I can't…give up now." He gasped before he charged again.

Itachi could see the sorrow in his eyes. The battle dragged on with futile fire jutsus on Sasuke's part and effective combat from Itachi. It was a pointless battle.

"You didn't have enough hate." Itachi said as the victor. He stood in the middle of the snowy clearing, the feeble body of Sasuke slowly bleeding to death in the virgin snow. "If I could make you regret so easily, that means you could not detach from your fond memories. Foolish brother, you still do not understand when I say that to be strong, is to be isolated.

"You have too many of those useless memories that it was too easy to exploit them. You should have clung to life instead."

Sasuke looked at his brother, his body unresponsive and unmoving, and coughed up blood. It stained the snow even more. "So this was it? I gave up…Sakura and Naruto for this?"

Itachi remained unsympathetic as he said quietly, "This is how far your potential goes. Someone else is destined to kill me."

But already, Uchiha Sasuke's black orbs were sightless and his body was limp. This was the magnificent ending to the avenger's life.

"I'm afraid, my little brother, someone else is to avenge your family."

* * *

_Scene V: Konoha_

* * *

Tsunade had come close to feeling this desolated perhaps twice in her life when her brother and Dan had died, but this had to be a new record. Her wide amber eyes were fixed on Naruto's poor state and the simple box that served as Hinata's coffin and even disbelief could barely register into her brain as she watched Naruto's repetitive movements.

"Kami-sama, how did it come to this?" She whispered for no air wanted to travel to her lungs. "Sakura, what have you done?"

Tears slipped from Tsunade's eyes, a first since the day Dan died. She hastily wiped them away when the door was quietly opened to reveal Hyuuga Hiashi, the regal leader of the fabled Hyuuga clan. His white eyes made a momentous effort to keep indifferent…until he saw the coffin that held Hinata. His neck visibly retracted to hold back a noise of sorrow and a vein appeared at his temple, an evident sign of his anger. He went to the coffin and laid a callous hand on it, as if to reassure Hinata.

"I have heard that it was Haruno Sakura who unwittingly revealed the location of their hideout." The Hyuuga patriarch forced his voice to remain calm. "Will there be anything done about this?"

Tsunade bowed deeply. "I should have taught her better, Hyuuga-sama. Please forgive me."

Hiashi stiffened and anger passed over his face before disappearing. "Where is she now?"

There was a hesitation before she answered his question. "She has gone after the Akatsuki herself. Hatake Kakashi has gone after her also."

The obvious fury boiling inside of him seemed to lessen at those words. It made him relaxed enough to turn his attention to his deceased daughter. Even though Hinata was not a prodigy as he wished her to be, he had still attachments as a father, and it was his only regret that he could not have been more affectionate when she was still alive. Hiashi cleared his throat and four Hyuuga clan members entered to carry out the coffin to their own residence. They had to honor the dead heiress with a grand, proper burial.

The Hyuuga leader looked at Naruto with pity but did not say anything. Instead, he wordlessly bowed to the Hokage before he took his leave.

Tsunade was alone in the room with Naruto who had stopped rocking, but he was still huddled together in a little ball. He didn't seem to remember anything. His eyes were empty like a corpse's. A mix of anger and disappointment bubbled inside of her heart, knowing that it was ultimately her fault that Sakura had caused this. If she had realized sooner…

* * *

_Scene VI: Third Dance_

* * *

Kisame stretched, his stomach satisfied, and patted his trusty sword next to him. "I think it's about time I go out and hunt. Just sitting around is going to get this guy irritated." He hefted the huge sword onto his shoulder before heading out of the door. He hesitated and opened his mouth to say something, but Itachi cut him off.

"If I see her, I will kill her."

Content with the answer, Kisame disappeared, and the Uchiha was left to think over many things. None of them seemed to stay and make an impact, but he preferred it that way. His blurry vision found a vague interest in Naruto's still form, his chakra barely flowing from the seal, but his major injuries had somehow healed themselves. He suddenly found himself wondering why Sakura was willing to risk so much for her friend. If Kisame was killed, then he would die. In the Akatsuki, protection did not exist. It puzzled his ingenious mind, its complex working somehow not able to grasp the simple concept of friendship and love.

He walked outside in the late evening, his wandering thoughts distracting from where he was going. Instinctively, his spine tingled with warning as someone drew near and he quietly armed himself with a kunai under his sleeve. Anticipation grew ever closer as the awaited kunoichi approached him calmly and openly. Her long pink locks seemed to glow in the soft moon, her jounin outfit dirty and worn due to hard travel. She had found him.

Sakura's body screamed at her to stop moving; the all-out sprint toward the town in the hopes of catching up to Itachi had exhausted her more than the all day traveling. Her knees shook with each effort to walk, but she tried to compose herself as she walked toward an expectant Uchiha Itachi.

He could almost feel her exhaustion radiating from her body, but nonetheless, she kept walking steadily until she was only a few meters away. As soon as she stopped walking, she swayed dangerously, and it amused him to watch her struggle to retain consciousness. And before he could think about the weight of his action, he activated his Sharingan—ignoring the vicious pain behind his eyes—and put her to sleep. He was there to catch her before she crumpled to the ground, her body grimy and sweaty from her journey, and he hoisted her into his arms before heading back into the inn.

Once in the room, he carried her into the small bathroom where he laid her in a round, old-fashioned tub. From there, he proceeded to peel off her clothes and cast them aside on the floor. He called for warm water from the inn keeper and he washed her naked body, smoothing away the dirt from her pale, flawless skin with a wet cloth. She slept peacefully as all of this occurred, allowing her beauty to be ravaged by his eyes alone. Itachi carefully washed her hair and allowed to drip water all over him as he lifted her out of the tub again while maneuvering a large towel around her slim body. Even though the soap did not have a flowery scent, she smelled of plum blossoms and rain, an enticing scent that caused him to dip his head lower to kiss the delicate skin of her vulnerable neck. Not resisting the instinct that saved him numerous times in battle, he left a trail of kisses upward until he reached her full lips. He only paused for a short moment before pressing mouth against hers and he almost pulled away when she responded by deepening their kiss.

Itachi's kiss was like fire to her mouth but she returned it anyway, and felt him stop for a brief moment—perhaps because of surprise—before he continued. He gently coaxed her mouth to allow him entrance inside, and she granted it easily. He carried her out of the bathroom with her hands clutching the front of his shirt, and he laid her down without breaking their contact.

Sakura automatically moved her hands to trace his jaw then move down his chest, fingering his neck and collar bone with her dainty, nimble hands. One of his hand supported her head while the other slowly ran along her thigh, making her shiver at the feeling.

"Pianissimo, remember, Sakura?" He whispered in her ear, his breath warm against the side of her face, "Lies are always at a pianissimo."

She looked directly into his eyes and attempted to say something, but he swallowed her words with his lips. "You can decide if this is a lie or not."

Sakura wanted it to be true. Even though she knew that she had to kill him, she wanted to forget that for just one night. She hoped that Itachi was not completely playing her because she knew that she couldn't exist without him.

Their third dance began.

* * *

**Ending notes:** Well, there you have it. I can't believe this is almost at an end. I hope I have aroused your curiosity as to what will happen at the end.

Thank you for the reviews and the support! You guys are simply fantastic!


	7. Act Finale

Beginning notes: Finally, the final chapter for you all to enjoy. I think this is the end to Pianissimo. Thank you for all of the reviews and the encouragement. I'm glad so many of you liked it. I had fun experimenting with the different ideas that I struggled with psychologically. You guys are awesome. I'm sure I'll be back to writing more frequently once school is out, so look forward to more!

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto.

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Pianissimo—Act VII

_Scene I: Detachment_

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Sakura's eyes fluttered open when her skin tingled in a reaction to the cold air that nipped lightly at her exposed legs. It was mid morning, and she could hear the noise of daily activity of the town outside of the walls. She shivered slightly and slid her legs under the blanket. Her mind immediately thought back to the night with Itachi, their exotic dance of their bodies and souls; and how dirty but also how _right_ it felt to her. She could hear his steady breathing beside her, rhythmic and deep, very much like the rhythm of their dance last night. His kisses…his touches…the roughness…the gentleness…

She turned on her side to find herself gazing into the fathomless depths of his iron black eyes and her stomach twitched in surprise at finding him awake. They stared at each other for a while, neither stirring nor making an effort to move. However, eventually, he wordlessly sat up, not once taking his eyes off of hers, and reached out to brush away a messy strand of hair from her face. His eyes flickered like a candle before they became unreadable and impassive once more, leaving Sakura to easily detach herself from the situation.

"I have to kill you now." She breathed. Their eye contact never wavered.

"And I, you." He replied just as easily and quietly.

He broke their eye contact and let his gaze carefully go over her form as if trying to memorize every inch of it, and he could feel her flush at the intensity of his inspection. All in all, he had to say that he was impressed by her body; it was almost flawless in every way, her skin soft, and her lean muscles aching in pleasure every time he graced her with his caresses. Her beauty was remarkable, but it also challenged the potential of his abilities as a shinobi. He had to overcome the hesitation of killing her so that he could prove to himself that he was indeed stronger than emotions, things that he had long cast away as useless and pointless.

The twisted logic of Itachi was perhaps irreversibly so.

Swiftly, he bent down to crush his lips to her, his mouth searching and hungry for something that was not his, not at all his to own. But she gave it to him anyway, responding to it almost desperately as her mind swam incoherently. He pulled himself away and looked at her again before slowly dressing into his clothes. She did the same, the dread slowly creeping away from her as her emotions died down again, dormant as they were when Sasuke had left. With long, slender fingers, she reached down for her discarded weapon pouch.

It was then that her mind opened up to the fact that Naruto lay in the corner, unconscious and dirty. She could not move for a full minute while she fully comprehended that it was indeed her friend lying there in the corner of the room. Her throat gave a strangled cry as she rushed to his side as a surge of powerlessness and confusion washed over her all at once.

"How long has he been here?" She asked aloud.

The cold tip of a kunai kissed her carotid artery. "A few days."

The room went silent and the air almost frigid. Sakura did not move besides stroke Naruto's dirt-caked face. "So the other that you left in the house was some sort of clone?"

"A clone is too easy to see through. It is a special type of genjutsu."

What terrible power. It almost made her stand in awe before his genius.

In an instant, Sakura parried the kunai with her own, and they now stood at the opposite ends of the small room. Her delicate skin was cut, but she paid no heed to it. Her heart hammered inside of her chest, as her eyes kept their focus on Itachi.

"Can you kill me, Sakura?" He asked, his face set with passive determination. "Do you hate me enough to kill me?"

The kunoichi raised herself to full height and faced him squarely. "I love my friends enough to kill you."

His figure blurred out of sight and then reappeared right in front of her, his lips merely centimeters away from her ear as he whispered, "Such weakness cannot kill me."

Lightning speech that matched his, she blocked a slash to her arm and sliced empty air with another kunai. But she couldn't react to a swift kick to her abdomen which caused her to fly through the wall behind her. Bystanders screamed and fled the scene in a hurry, mothers ushering away their children, vendors pushing away their stands of merchandise. She slid across the dusty road and smashed into the wall of the building opposite of the small inn, and she struggled to get up to her feet as the Uchiha stepped through the huge hole in the wall, still altogether composed and calm.

"You have gotten faster. I thought perhaps you wouldn't be able to block my first attack."

Haruno Sakura wiped away a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand and allowed a small, grim smile to grace her lips. She bent her legs in a ready stance, her hands fisting around each kunai. "Let's make this our final dance."

* * *

_Scene II: Conscious_

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A dull sound greeted his senses and the ground reverberated with a sudden impact of something against something else, which caused his body to react slightly. Groggy and confused, he did not recognize the small room that he was in. His head spun so fast that it made him nauseous.

_Wake up, brat. Wake the hell up. I'm done healing you._

The familiar growl of the Kyuubi cleared his head as his hands moved automatically to push himself from the floor.

"Well, well, you're awake? This was certainly unanticipated." Another slightly amused voice drawled from a couple of meters away. "It seems that Itachi let go of the sleep jutsu now that he's preoccupied with the kuniochi."

Uzumaki Naruto turned to see Kisame grin his horrible smile full of jagged teeth, his sword resting comfortably on his broad shoulders. A surge of hatred and fresh anger boiled inside of him as he remembered why he was there.

Hinata was dead, and that's all he needed to know.

Confused blue orbs turned into cynical red, his pupil contracting into slivers like a fox's, and the whiskers on his face deepened into an angry crimson as he faced the shinobi that had murdered his wife. "I'll kill you."

Kisame's grin widened. "So I finally get to test the Kyuubi's power? This is going to be good."

_Let's kill him!_

For once in a long time, Naruto listened to the urging of the Kyuubi. He had to get compensation for his loss somehow. No one messed his family and got away with it. No one could murder his wife and think to get away with it without payment. As the next Hokage, he drove a hard bargain.

Your life or nothing.

* * *

_Scene III: Last dance_

* * *

The road was clear of anyone who was not involved in the fight. A stray breeze whimsically brushed past the two ninjas as if it was unaware of the seriousness of the situation.

"Hate me, Sakura." Uchiha Itachi said as he approached her.

_If you hate me, then it will make it easier for me to kill you without hesitation._

Sakura held her scraped arm. "I do."

_I would hate to love you, but it's too late._

"Only the strong survive, and to be strong means to be hated." He came back at her, silently and swiftly, like all the other times. It was how he killed. She dodged him precariously and tried to regain her balance by twisting her body to change her momentum. Her lungs burned when she tried to breathe deeply and her lower side was bruised from the kick.

Acting quickly, she healed her bruise and her arm. Itachi's eyes flickered with recognition at the sight of her healing powers. "Indeed, you were useful in healing my arm."

The kunoichi ignored the stab of hurt at his words. "Glad to be of service." She spat in disgust.

"Killing you will bring me higher in my potential."

_My potential may end here._

"And killing you will rectify what I have done."

_No one will forgive me even when I do._

Sakura charged her empty fists with chakra and punched the ground. The ground broke in two then in smaller, jagged pieces as she used them like barriers to flit in and out of sight. Itachi's Sharingan easily detected her movements, and he stood ready as the kunoichi ran in circles around him while trying to calculate on what to do. Too late, Itachi struck with unparalleled speed, cutting her upper arm and leg, but it was enough of an opening for her to land a full-blown punch to his chest. Itachi felt several ribs crack at the enormous impact.

He somersaulted in mid-air and landed back on his feet, ignoring the searing pain of his cracked ribs. Sakura was breathing heavily as she looked down at her bleeding leg. It was a deep wound. She stemmed the flow of the blood to decrease her blood loss.

They met again in a clash of steel against steel, fist against fist, leg against leg. Dodging, turning, punching, kicking, they danced and danced, this time to the death. It was their closing dance. The rapid pace of their quickened even more as their heartbeats provided the beat of the drums; they were putting everything that they had into this last dance.

Sakura knew she could keep up with neither his endurance nor his speed, and so she broke away from their engagement to take a break while she thought of another way to kill him.

Itachi took advantage of the pause of the battle. He closed his eyes and concentrated. _Mangekyou Sharingan!_

Sakura made the mistake of looking into those eyes. She could hear his voice in her head.

_You will suffer through all the deaths of your closest friends._

She saw Naruto fighting valiantly against the Akatsuki but they overwhelmed him with twenty kunais piercing every part of him—blood was everywhere—she tried to scream but nothing came out; Ino was ambushed by a rouge band of missing-nin and they ravaged her over and over again until they killed her when she couldn't move anymore—Sakura tried to cry but no tears would come; Kakashi bracing an entire explosion to sacrifice himself in order to save his comrades—his burnt and scarred body being carried back to Konoha by those who had survived because of that sacrifice.

The kunoichi vomited. She was on her hands and knees, doubled over as those scenes flashed before her eyes, and she threw up again when she saw Ino being repeatedly violated. Sakura collapsed out of exhaustion and sheer lack of energy, and she took in a shaky breath when Itachi's genjutsu stopped. She felt him grab her by the neck and raise her up to her feet forcibly. He pressed her against a wall behind them. Sakura's empty hands hung limply at her sides, her kunai lost somewhere on the ground.

"The love you have for you friends always betrays you when in the presence of an Uchiha. All useless…all in vain…" Itachi breathed. His quick fingers twirled a kunai and then smoothly stabbed her straight through her chest. It was frightening how graceful his movements were.

Sakura jolted at the sharp agony and tasted the bitter taste of blood on her tongue, but she smiled. She coughed a little, splattering blood down her chin, and she looked down at the bloody hand of Itachi still upon the fatal kunai. She wrapped her smaller hand around the kunai also, securing him in place. She felt her body shutting down—she knew she was going to die—and she called upon everything left in her body.

"Satsugaite…no…Jutsu…" She breathed inaudibly.

A ball of killing chakra formed in her free hand and without a second thought, she slammed it into his body, feeling his skin and flesh tear away as her chakra destroyed all of his cells. Itachi did not look surprised or shocked, just blank and uncomprehending. His Sharingan retreated for the final time and his vision became its usual blurriness, but he tried to focus through the pain at her face. Breathing no longer came naturally for the couple. They had to consciously force themselves to breathe.

"So this is my potential." He whispered to her.

"Yes."

Itachi frowned in the slightest. "My brother was foolish enough to let you go." Blood dripped from the gaping wound in his chest.

"As long as I have you, it doesn't matter anymore."

"I have always told you that lies are always the quietest." He exhaled and he felt his body relax into her arms.

"You can decide if that is a lie or not."

Itachi closed his eyes as if at peace with the world. "If it is a lie, then I will have died for nothing."

The kunoichi, as if she knew he wanted to see her, drew closer and kissed his soft lips. "Then this is how you play the game, Itachi."

And their heartbeats faded away into a pianissimo. Their dance was concluded.

* * *

_Scene IV: Kakashi_

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Hatake Kakashi had arrived just in time to see Sakura kill Itachi with Tsunade's Satsugaite no jutsu. He was indeed too late; too late to save her and to take back home. He saw her whisper to his face and kiss him before falling slowly to ground, her pink tresses cascading behind her like the rain of sakura petals in the spring. He watched in fascination as Itachi stroked her cheek once before going still.

He walked listlessly, his uniform marred with signs of heavy travel through the woods. He slowly approached the dead couple and knelt by Sakura's peaceful form which was partially resting in Itachi's limp arms. She looked gorgeous even in her eternals sleep, even with blood speckling her face; somehow, that added a strange, haunting beauty to her. He gathered her in his arms—she seemed so vulnerable still—and faced the direction of the inn where a battle raged wildly. Kakashi looked down at her bloodly figure and the kunai still embedded in her chest. For some reason, he could not bring himself to pull it out. It felt like she would be sad if it was.

Bringing Itachi's body seemed be an obligation since he possessed the famous Uchiha Sharingan. He couldn't risk letting anyone else have that kind of power in their hands.

There was a battle in the confined space of the inn, Naruto destroying everything on sight.

"Go help him, sensei."

Startled, he almost dropped the petite woman in his arms. Sakura gazed up at him with hooded, dull green eyes that seemed to plead with him to do as she wished. "Sakura, you'll be fine. Don't talk. We'll get you to Tsunade."

Sakura shook her head and winced as the kunai in her chest shifted even deeper. "I don't want to go back. Too many things I've done wrong. I am ashamed to face Konoha." Kakashi opened his mouth to say something, but she quickly went on. "Please, sensei. Let me stay here. I belong to him now."

Kakashi's eyes—both of them—stung as he made the effort not to let his tears show. "You belong in Konoha."

His beloved student gave him a small smile. "That person gave me a chance to dance. I want to keep dancing."

He had to concentrate even harder to keep the tears in check. _A shinobi must not show his emotions; he must not be vulnerable._ He turned around and walked toward Itachi again. Kakashi placed her in a sitting position against the wall that was still stained with her blood. In a magnificent show of delicate tenderness, Sakura carefully rested Itachi's head on her lap. She stroked his beautiful face, peacefully slumbering. "If we ever get reincarnated, I hope we meet in different circumstances."

"Sakura, please don't leave."

She looked up, her eyes brighter than he had ever seen them, and she gave him such a pretty smile. "I'm sorry I let you down, sensei. Find happiness, sensei, and thank you…for everything."

* * *

_Scene V: Resolution_

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The battle-worn Naruto stood over Kisame's bloody body in the small room. His maniacal red eyes receded back into their normal orbs of deep blue, and his body automatically began to mend itself from the several deep gashes from Kisame's enormous sword.

He was breathing hard and he sat down in the middle of the destroyed room, taking a breather after completing his vengeance.

"Naruto, you're okay." A quiet voice said from behind him.

Quickly turning around, Naruto was surprised to see Kakashi standing there, his clothes bloody though he didn't seem to have any outward wounds. "Sensei, what happened?" He exclaimed, his exhaustion forgotten.

"Sakura is dead." His voice was flat and emotionless.

At first, Naruto did not move. Shaking himself out of his reverie, he laughed nervously. "Wait, what?"

"Sakura is dead."

A blur of golden head charged at him and slammed him to the ground, and he was pinned down by Naruto's heavy body. "Damn it, don't say so casually!" He shouted. "Don't say it like that! Don't say it at all!"

So there was silence. Naruto looked up to see a familiar shade of pink against the sun-bleached wall of a building. Angry tears welled up and he got up, ignoring Kakashi, to walk to his best friend. He staggered a little over the scattered rubble of the inn, and when he reached Sakura's dead form slumped against the wall, he clamped his eyes shut and fisted his hands. He trembled and his throat burned with a sob. He felt hot tears slipping from his eyes.

When he composed himself enough to look at her again, he opened his eyes and took a shuddering breath. Naruto knelt beside her and gazed at her beautiful face, almost smiling when he noticed at she also had a smile on her face. He half expected her to open those emerald eyes and smile that brilliant white smile while laughing at how good she was at faking death.

"_Boy, I really had you going there for a bit, Naruto, didn't I?" _But that never came.

It never would.

Naruto wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. Her limp body simply obeyed. "I don't have anyone anymore, Sakura. Why did you have to go?" He moaned in despair. She remained silent.

Kakashi could not watch the heart-wrenching scene. He turned away and sighed a heavy sigh. It was going to be a long day.

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_Scene VI: Home_

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"…even though she made mistakes, I still honor her dedication to correct her wrongs. She was one of the greatest medical ninjas that I had the pleasure of teaching. I will miss her." Tsunade concluded. She turned to the side and nodded at a certain golden haired shinobi. "Naruto, would you like to say a couple of things?"

The multitude all clothed in black shifted as Naruto strode forward uncertainly and hesitantly. He cleared his throat. "Sakura was the greatest friend that I had. Maybe because she paid for most of my ramen when I was younger." A ripple of quiet laughter traveled through the crowd. "She helped me out when the Akatsuki were after me. She always made sure to visit me whenever she could, and she worried about me constantly. I'm just disappointed that I wasn't able to do much for her…" His voice broke.

Kakashi stepped in and rested a reassuring hand on the younger man's shoulder. Tsunade commenced with the burial. It was time for the ultimate good bye.

Naruto looked up at the sky and let a breath of finality. "You're home."

Upon her gravestone, there was an epithet:

_She lived a quiet life and many did not recognize her, but her love was always there, just at a minute pianissimo. _

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Ending notes: There you have it. Another finished story. Sorry if it was short. But now, I must work on Blind Vision. Ending reviews would be awesome! Thanks for everything, my lovely readers!


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